Malaria Flashcards
Lecture outcomes
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
* Define what HIV and AIDS mean
* Identify the main risk factors for HIV/AIDS and describe
how they differ across regions and countries
* Understand the drivers of the HIV pandemic
* Describe the main preventive strategies that can be used to
control HIV/AIDS
What is HIV?
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes
AIDS - identified as a retrovirus in 1983. - Two serotypes: HIV-1 (most common type) and HIV-2; both are
zoonotic in origin; HIV-1 from chimpanzees and HIV-2 from
sooty mangabeys. - HIV is found in semen, blood, vaginal and anal fluids, and
breast milk
- Passed from one person to another when infected blood, semen, or vaginal secretions come in contact
with an uninfected person’s broken skin or mucous membranes. - Infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their baby during pregnancy, delivery and breast-feeding.
- Other: transfusion of blood and blood products, organ transplantation and occupational exposure
- People with HIV have the HIV infection (termed HIV positive)
What is AIDS?
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome)
* Syndrome – A group of symptoms that
collectively indicate or characterize the
disease.
* AIDS characterized by a weakening of
the immune system - the end stage of the
HIV infection
* Currently no cure however HIV is now a
manageable chronic health condition
using antiretroviral therapy
HIV timeline
Who is at risk of HIV?
- High risk ‘behaviours’:
- Unprotected anal or vaginal sex with exchange of body
fluids - IV drug use with shared needles/equipment
- Infant of a mother with HIV – during pregnancy, birth and
breast feeding - Having another sexually transmissible infection (STI) e.g.
syphilis, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhoea - Recipient of blood products (not in Australia anymore)
- Some needle stick activities – tattooing, piercing
- Occupational risk – surgeons, dentists, lab workers
Risk defined as:
“an aspect of personal behaviour or lifestyle, an
environmental exposure or an inborn or inherited
characteristic which on the basis of epidemiological evidence
is known to be associated with health-related condition(s)
considered important to prevent” (Last 2001)
Who is at risk of HIV?
Sub-Saharan Africa
25.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan
Africa
* Only 14% of world’s population – but 67% of HIV case
s
* Main route of transmission is heterosexual intercourse
* Of the 3600 new HIV infections a day, about 50% of them are
in Sub-Saharan Africa
* Every week 4000 adolescent girls and young women aged
15-24 years became infected in 2022: 3100 (77.5%) occurred in
Sub-Saharan Africa
Vulnerability of young women
- Social/cultural and economic factors
- Cross generational relationships: impossible to negotiate safe sex with older men
- Transactional sex: in exchange for money or gifts
- Age, economic and social disparity: exploitation
- Many women dependent on their husbands for finances and cultural acceptance
- Interpersonal violence
Sub-Saharan Africa - gender
Significant differences between young
women and men:
* Six in seven new HIV infections among
adolescents aged 15–19 years are among
girls.
* Young women aged 15–24 years are twice as
likely to be living with HIV than men.
Drivers of the HIV epidemic
- Act at various levels and include biological, behavioural, social and
psychological factors - Gender inequality: Low social, economic and cultural status of women:
women cannot ask their husbands to use condoms, cannot refuse sexual
advances, marital rape, cannot leave for financial, cultural reasons - Early sexual debut and early marriages (cannot negotiate for safe sex,
biology not yet mature)
Sub-Saharan Africa
Drivers of the HIV epidemic
- High levels of stigma and discrimination that:
- Prevent people from accessing preventative services: VCT Voluntary counselling and
testing, buying condoms - Prevent PLHIV from accessing treatment
- Prevent them from risk-reduction measures e.g. condom use, abstinence and correct
condom use - Prevent HIV-infected mothers from accessing prevention of mother to child (PMTCT)
services (e.g. mother will continue to breast feed contrary to health workers advice)
Vulnerability of young women
- Biological
- More at risk of infection due to vaginal anatomy: more surface area, prone to bruising
particularly in younger women
- Poverty with wide disparity in wealth: complex relationship: wealthy people
take advantage of poorer people, indulge in more sexual practices and more
sexual partners