December 1 - World AIDS Day

This week, which recalls the global fight against AIDS, the Ministry of Health brought good and bad news about the disease. The good part is that there has been a stabilization in the number of new infections each year. From 1998 to 2010 there were no sudden increases and from 2009 to 2010 there was a small drop: from 35.979 new cases to 34.212 the following year. These data follow the global trend pointed out by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (Unaids).

There was also a drop in cases of transmission from mothers to children, during childbirth or through breast milk. From 1998 to 2010, the fall in the incidence rate was 41%. In the same period, there was also a reduction in the mortality rate. If before, for every 100 thousand people, 7,6 died from AIDS, today that number is 6,3.

But while we have this good news, there are also some setbacks, such as the increase in the proportion of young gay men aged between 15 and 24 infected with the HIV virus. The same happened in the rest of the world, according to data from Unaids. This group corresponds precisely to people who did not live with the worst moment of AIDS, when there was still no treatment and did not witness public figures die from the disease. With advances in treatment, they tend to think it's a banal disease. Ironically, the fact that the disease is now controllable contributes to many people failing to prevent themselves, especially with the use of condoms during sex.

Read more on i-Health.

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