Sharp rise in HIV infections

[Weltschmerz]

Sharp rise in HIV infections

Published: 5 Feb 08 08:20 CET
Online: The Local - Sharp rise in HIV infections

The number of recorded cases of HIV rose sharply last year among homosexual and bisexual men in the Stockholm and Skåne regions.

Last year saw an 80 percent increase of new cases among these groups in Skåne compared to the previous year. In Stockholm, there was a 32 percent rise over the same period, Dagens Nyheter reports.

"It has been a cruel year," said Hans Bertil Hansson, a doctor in Malmö specializing in infectious diseases. In January alone Hansson has detected the virus in eleven of his patients.

While final statistics for 2007 are not yet available, the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control expects the number of new cases for last year to reach a record 500.

Stockholm’s intravenous drug users suffered a major outbreak which added to the high infection statistics. The virus strain is new and appears to have come from Finland.

Through the middle of November 2007, forty-five new cases of HIV infections were discovered among drug addicts in Stockholm county. The figure is more than double the twenty-two cases confirmed in 2006 and significantly higher than the twenty-six cases recorded in 2005.

Eight of the infected Stockholm addicts were infected through sexual activity. But most often the virus is spread through the sharing of contaminated needles.

In Skåne, HIV infections have been held in check with the help of a needle-exchange programme as recommended by several UN bodies. However, politicians in Stockholm are deeply split on the questions, which is set to be examined further.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

[tyciol]

Sadly it seems people only seem to want to use condoms to prevent pregnancy, but are willing to gamble when it comes to potential carriers of STDs, which you should assume is anyone for safe bets.

[Lutiferre]

Even with condoms, the sad reality is there is a chance of getting infected, if you're having sex with someone who has the virus.

Perhaps if people just had less sex out of long-term relationships, and importantly less pre-marital sex, these things wouldnt be an issue.

Not to be a killjoy, but sexual abstain is necessary these days. If people cant find any other meaning of life than lots of pre-marital sex, then I have no problem that they're dying from HIV and AIDS anyway, but its just sad they had to infect others, who actually had some potential in becoming great people, and impose the fatal consequences of degenerate values onto other people in society.

[Sergius]

Originally Posted by Lutiferre

Perhaps if people just had less sex out of long-term relationships, and importantly less pre-marital sex, these things wouldnt be an issue.

We'll get to that as soon as we've taken care of shortage of natural resources, overpopulation, idiocy, hypocrisy, snakes on a plane, the Catholic/Orthodox schizma, immigration, what came first: the egg or the chicken, flat tires, Northern Ireland, doping in sports, and how to make the perfect Bloody Mary.

[Lutiferre]

Originally Posted by Faustas

We'll get to that as soon as we've taken care of shortage of natural resources, overpopulation, idiocy, hypocrisy, snakes on a plane, the Catholic/Orthodox schizma, immigration, what came first: the egg or the chicken, flat tires, Northern Ireland, doping in sports, and how to make the perfect Bloody Mary.

Seriously though, the only way to overcome some of those problems, that are quite real, is religion and common values. Idiocy isnt a problem though, if people think less and act more automated, i.e. after a set of ground rules and common values defined by a given religion, we wouldnt have so many societal problems.

[Ikutiera]

The Dccr5 mutation conferring protection against HIV-1
in Caucasian populations has a single and recent origin
in Northeastern Europe



http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/7/3/399.pdf