WORLD AIDS DAY

The reeducation of the people needs to be the first step in the prevention of this terrible dieses along with adequate medical care for those already infected. Even a recognizition by the government of El Salvador that this is not just a one country problem but a worldwide problem. We have come so far in prevention and education yet there are those who still are not even aware of what a danger this really is. Lets all pray for education and medical improvements this worlds aids Day. The following article explains the effects on el Salvador.

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 30 (IPS) - The rise in new HIV/AIDS cases in El Salvador shows either that the government strategy to combat the epidemic is failing, or that a larger proportion of the population is being tested, depending on the respective viewpoints of non-governmental organisations and local authorities.María de la Paz was diagnosed HIV-positive in March 2004.

At first "it was very difficult; I didn’t want to accept that I had the virus. I went through a phase when I was stigmatised and discriminated against by my partner’s family, and for weeks I just wanted the earth to swallow me up." Then she found doctors who convinced her that she "was a human being, with a right to live," and helped her get over the death of her partner in 2004, from AIDS. María de la Paz is just one of thousands of Salvadorans living with HIV.

According to the health authorities, the epidemic has gained ground in 2007, after two successive years with slightly lower numbers of new infections. From January through October, 1,872 new infections were reported, an average of 6.2 new cases a day in this Central American country of seven million people, according to the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS). In 2006, the authorities registered 1,705 new cases, and 1,625 in 2005, down from 2,089 in 2004. Civil society organisations say the resurgence of the disease is due to the lack of comprehensive programmes to combat it. By law, the Public Health and Social Assistance Ministry (MSPAS) in El Salvador provides universal treatment for HIV/AIDS, including

antiretroviral therapy, but in fact services are mostly centralised in hospitals in the capital, and do not necessarily reach all rural areas, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to the MSPAS, the increase is due to a rise in the number of people taking HIV tests, which means more cases are detected. However, the health authorities themselves, international organisations and civil society groups all agree that under-reporting of HIV/AIDS infections is at least 50 percent. "Although the overall numbers are greater, we’re sure they do not reflect an increase in the epidemic, but rather a higher proportion of cases being detected," said Rodrigo Simán, the head of the National Programme of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Jeannette Alvarado, head of the Maquilishuat Foundation (FUMA), said the epidemic was showing no signs of abating, in spite of the Salvadoran government’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

In September 2000, the United Nations member countries pledged to achieve eight MDGs to drastically reduce extreme poverty and hunger, serious illnesses, inequality and pollution. The state anti-HIV/AIDS campaign is attempting to project the image that every effort is being made to combat the disease, but the government’s promise that "there will be no new cases by 2015 is not being fulfilled; on the contrary, new infections are increasing all the time," Alvarado told IPS. She said there were two major defects in official policies to combat the epidemic: "The lack of an educational policy for prevention, and lack of follow-up of diagnosed cases."

The Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says in its 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update report that "global HIV prevalence has levelled off, and the number of new infections has fallen," which is attributed by international experts to improvements in medication. According to the report, 2.1 million people died of AIDS this year, while 2.5 million new infections occurred, equivalent to 6,800 new cases a day. A total of 33.2 million people are currently living with HIV worldwide, it adds. Another UNAIDS report, presented in Nicaragua in early November at the Central American Congress on STI/HIV/AIDS (CONCASIDA 2007), indicated that 208,600 people are living with HIV in Central America. In El Salvador and Guatemala, 0.9 percent of the population are HIV-positive. The total number of medically confirmed HIV-positive people in El Salvador is 19,890. MSPAS records indicate that 4,754 people have died of AIDS in the last 10 years. Of those newly infected, 61 percent are men and 39 percent women.

Sixty-six percent of infections occur in people between the ages of 25 and 49. Sexual transmission remains the predominant infection route, causing 92 percent of cases, particularly heterosexual relations, which are responsible for 81 percent. Many people "lack adequate and timely medical care," the education programme coordinator for the Foundation to Prevent, Educate and Support People Living with HIV/AIDS (FUNDASIDA), Laura Valladares, told IPS. "Even the slightest increase in the number of infections should concern us," said the activist, in response to government statements that infections are not rising, but rather, more of them are being diagnosed. María de la Paz is now working for FUNDASIDA, and is receiving antiretroviral treatment. She is determined to fight for her life, and to work at "educating the general public, in order to stop the spread of AIDS," she says. (END/2007)