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Wise
Up to World AIDS Day
The Health Promotion
Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA) in partnership with the
Sexual Health Information Exchange Group
(SHIEG) has today voiced its support for World AIDS Day,
the international day of action on HIV and AIDS, which takes
place annually on 1 December. A key theme of this year’s
UK campaign is to encourage people to Wise Up to the facts
about HIV and AIDS and to Wear It - the red ribbon to support
those living with the disease.
In Northern Ireland since records began, a total of 520
people have attended the Genito Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinics
to receive treatment for HIV and 92 people have died from
AIDS-related illnesses.1
Carmel Kelly,
Clinical Nurse Specialist at the GUM Clinic, Royal Victoria
Hospital said: ”Because we know there
are people living with HIV who are unaware of their diagnosis,
we have recently started to offer HIV testing routinely to
all new attendees at the clinic. While we know there is a
huge emotional impact from a HIV diagnosis we also believe
there are benefits.
“Diagnosis
at an early stage allows us to monitor the impact of the
virus on the body, and opens the opportunities
for treatment to postpone further illness and can help to
prevent further new infections. We know from routine antenatal
testing that we can greatly reduce the transmission of HIV
from mother to child, if the mother is aware of her infection.”
Between 2003 and 2004 the number of new cases of HIV diagnosed
in Northern Ireland has almost doubled (63 new cases in 2004
compared to 32 new cases in 2003) and 3 new cases of AIDS
were diagnosed in 2004, compared to one in 2003.2
Dr Brian Gaffney,
Chief Executive of the HPA said: “Sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) continue to rise at an alarming
rate in Northern Ireland, with new cases of HIV increasing
steadily over the past six years. People in Northern Ireland
need to ‘wise up’ to the fact that HIV is here
and that the number of the infections will continue to escalate
if the safer sex message is ignored.
“There are
strong links between risky sexual behaviour, particularly
among young people, and the misuse of alcohol
and drugs which can have serious implications for both their
physical and mental health. Practising safer sex is the best
protection against the spread of a range of STIs including
HIV.”
Globally there are an estimated 40.3 million people living
with HIV with 5 million new infections every year. In 2005
more than 3 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses,
of which more than 500,000 were children.3
END
Notes
to the Editor:
Further information about the UK campaign for World AIDS Day
is available at: www.worldaidsday.org and for World events,
visit: www.worldaidscampaign.org
The HPA currently promotes awareness of safer sex through
a poster campaign aimed at 18 to 30 year olds. The posters
are currently displayed in pubs and nightclubs across Northern
Ireland.
SHIEG is a network of health professionals from the four Health
and Social Service Boards, the HPA, the Genito Urinary Medicine
Clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital and Barnardos. The aim
of the group is to exchange information, plan joint training
events and promote awareness of sexual health issues.
For media enquiries contact:
Rosie
McGaughey or Jenny Dougan at the HPA – Tel: 9031
1611.
1 Cumulative
totals of HIV and AIDS by 30 September 2005, Genitourinary
Medicine Clinic, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
2 Northern Ireland statistics for HIV and AIDS are available
from the Health Protection Agency website: www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/hiv_and_sti/hiv/epidemiology/introduction.htm
3 www.unaids.org/epi2005/doc/EPlupdate2005_pdf_en/epi-update2005_en.pdf
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