DECEMBER 1 - WORLD AIDS DAY
Support A1+!The World AIDS Day is the international day of action on HIV and AIDS which takes place every year on 1 December.
HIV is one of the biggest social, economic and health challenges in the world. It is a global emergency claiming over 8,000 lives every day. In fact 5 people die of AIDS every minute. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This is the virus known to cause AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). If someone is HIV-positive, it means they have been infected with the virus. A person infected with HIV does not have AIDS until the virus seriously damages their immune system, making them vulnerable to a range of infections, some of which can lead to death. HIV is transmitted through body fluids in particular blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk
In 2005, over 3 million people acquired HIV, which means there are now over 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS. Despite best efforts from governments, non-profit organizations and healthcare practitioners around the world, HIV and AIDS is still having huge global impact.
The number of women and children infected with the virus is growing. Now there are some 2.3 million infected children and 17.5 million women in the world. In 2005 about 700 thousand children acquired HIV; 570 thousand died.
In Armenia there are 375 HIV infected, 356 of them are Armenian citizens. In the period of January-November 2005, 71 infected were registered, 68 of them are RA citizens. Presently among the infected 279 /78,4%/ are men, 77 /21,6%/ are women and 6/1,7%/ are children.
The majority of the people infected are 20-39 years old. In Armenia the general ways of infecting with the HIV are sharing needles or other contaminated injection /54.5%/ and unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner /37.6%/.
Besides, transmission from infected mother to child in the womb or at birth and breastfeeding was as well registered.
About 101 (among them are 18 women and 4 children) HIV infected were diagnosed of AIDS. Since the beginning of the epidemic 76 people have died including 12 women and 2 children. The majority of men infected wit virus acquired it in Russia. It should be also noted that 70,21% of the men were infected via needles when taking drugs while almost all the women were infected via sexual contact.
The greatest number of HIV infected is registered in Yerevan – 177 cases what makes 49.7% of the total number. Then comes the Shirak region with 8.4%
According to informal data there are some 2800-3000 HIV infected in the republic.
