Will AIDS Campaign Be Tsunami's Next Victim?

Will AIDS Campaign Be Tsunami's Next Victim?

ASIA - Some involved in the worldwide fight against AIDS fear that global contributions to help victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami will result in a reduction of funds available to combat the epidemic. Others, however, remain optimistic that the push to help AIDS patients will continue unabated.

Annick Hamel of Doctors Without Borders remarked, "One potential source of concern is that people have already given for the tsunami, and that the next time an appeal is made, whatever the cause is, the well of generosity will be dry."

The challenges of preventing and treating HIV/AIDS are sure to multiply in tsunami-hit areas, experts say, where the disaster's victims - poor, displaced and traumatized - are targets of the virus due to rape, child trafficking, and prostitution.

By the end of 2005, the World Health Organization hopes to treat 3 million impoverished AIDS patients with antiretrovirals. As of last month, however, just 440,000 were receiving the treatment. UNAIDS says $10.5 billion is needed to fight the epidemic this year, a figure projected to rise to $20 billion by 2007. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria needs $2.3 billion for its work in 2005, but it had pledges of just $932 million by mid-December.

Suman Mehta, UNAIDS' associate director for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, is less concerned that tsunami spending will be taken away from AIDS, but she worries that without additional support, local governments hit hard by the disaster will be forced to reduce their own AIDS spending.

WHO AIDS fundraiser Badara Samb said that while most AIDS donations come from governments and charities that remain committed to the fight, most of the tsunami donations represent "new money" pledged by individuals.

Tim Clark, a spokesperson for the Global Fund, suggested that the tsunami may actually bring about a lasting increase of awareness of global health problems.

We are providing the above information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases does not constitute endorsement. The above summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact sheets and announcements.

HIV1 - ELISA Antibodies

Most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before manifesting AIDS. During that period, infected people will have few, if any, symptoms yet they can transmit the virus.
The percentage of women with AIDS has increased steadily, and the percentage of people infected heterosexually has also increased, surpassing the percentage infected through injecting drug use.
During 2001, there were 35575 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates now that 40,000 new cases of HIV transmission occur every year.
Of the people infected with the virus of AIDS in the USA in the year 2001, 42% were whites, 37% blacks, 20% Hispanics and <1% Asians and Pacific Islanders and <1% American Indians and Alaska Natives.
During the 1990s, the HIV epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases in blacks and Hispanics and in women.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). The presence of HIV in the body can be detected in several ways. The most common is the HIV-ELISA Antibodies test.

The HIV-ELISA looks for the body response to the virus manifested by the presence in your blood of Antibodies to HIV proteins. Antibodies are special proteins that our Immune System produce in response to the presence of HIV.

The test performed on your sample actually consists of two tests: a Screening test and a Confirmatory test. The screening test procedure is called an ELISA—Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay or an EIA (Enzyme Immunosorbent Assay). The confirmatory test is used in the event your HIV-ELISA is positive and/or equivocal and is the procedure used is the Western Blot Assay (WB)

The screening and confirmatory tests are usually done using small samples of blood. If a sample of blood tests positive repeatedly in the screening test, it will be confirmed through the Western Blot test. People will be informed that they are infected with HIV only after both the screening and confirmatory tests have shown a positive (reactive) result.

Positive HIV antibody tests results are over 99% accurate when confirmed. Negative HIV antibody tests are over 99% accurate if it has been at least six months after a contact with a potentially HIV-infected partner. False negatives or false positives occur rarely.

Antibodies to HIV can be detected in the blood, in the urine or in the saliva. People produce antibodies with different speeds and therefore the time interval between infection and the development of antibodies to HIV can go from four weeks to six months from the exposure date or SDC ( Suspected Date of Contact). The appearance of antibodies in a blood or urine sample of a person which was known to be negative to HIV is called Seroconversion.

The HIV Elisa results are usually available in one or two business days.

THE WINDOW PERIOD

The time period between a person’s contact with the virus (infection) and when HIV antibodies become detectable in blood or other fluids is called the "window period". Most people will develop antibodies detectable within 4-6 weeks after infection with HIV. Some people may take longer; but nearly all (99%) will have antibodies by 6 months following infection. Therefore, the test may not be accurate if a person gets tested too soon after a potential exposure. People waiting six months from the time of the exposure before testing will have a 99% accurate test result. Until now there have been no studies showing antibodies present in people with longer than six months exposure to HIV.