A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, July 24, 2017
Some good news and some bad, in the fight against HIV
A dispatch from the battle front
Jul 20th 2017
A dispatch from the battle front
Jul 20th 2017
THE latest progress report* from UNAIDS, the United Nations body charged
with combating HIV and AIDS, brings mixed news. On the positive side,
as the chart shows, the death rate from AIDS continues to fall. In 2016
there were 1m AIDS-related fatalities, down from 1.9m in 2005, the year
of peak mortality. This reflects the successful promulgation of
antiretroviral drugs in almost all parts of the world to those already
infected. Such drugs can keep symptoms at bay indefinitely, prolonging
lifespans to those enjoyed by the uninfected.
As the chart also shows, the death rate among women and girls is both
lower than that for men and boys, and is also falling faster. This is
despite both sexes having similar rates of infection (indeed, at 51% of
the infected population, females carry a slightly higher burden of the
disease). This inequality probably reflects both earlier diagnosis of
women, whose HIV status is checked routinely at antenatal clinics, and a
more responsible female attitude towards taking any drugs prescribed.
It also suggests that consideration should be given as to how campaigns
can be designed more effectively to reach and penetrate the brains of
men.
Less happily, the rate of new infections, though dropping, is not doing
so as fast as UNAIDS and its allies had hoped. In 2016 1.8m people
became infected. That is down from a peak of 3.2m in 1997, but has
declined by only 16% since 2010. On present trends, the official UN
target of reducing the figure to 500,000 a year by 2020 looks hopelessly
optimistic.
As to the idea of a cure for AIDS, namely a medication that will clear
the virus from someone’s body completely, that also remains a distant
prospect. For now, UNAIDS’s goal of 90/90/90—that 90% of those who are
infected will know the fact, that 90% of those who know the fact will be
on treatment and that in 90% of those being treated, the treatment will
be effective—remains ambitious enough to be taxing (in 2016 the figures
were 70%, 77% and 82% respectively), but realistic enough to be
achievable.