HIV ceases to be killer disease

The dreaded Human Immune Virus (HIV) which has wreaked havoc in the last three decades across the globe may lastly be on its way out as a killer disease. Scientists researching into a treat have announced that if an HIV-positive person immediately starts suitable treatment of anti-retroviral drugs, the risk of transmitting the virus to an uninfected sexual partner is nearly totally eliminated. That is dramatic and welcome news to the entire world because the disease had puzzled the scientific and medical communities as incurable. The international trial, conduct by the HIV avoidance Trials Network, tracked more than 1,700 couples across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States and found that the risk of illness fell by 96 per cent.

A statement from the UN Information Centre in Accra last Friday said the reduction in risk was so big that the trial was stopped some three to four years ahead of schedule. "This breakthrough is a serious game changer," said Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programmers on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Now we require making sure that couples have the option to choose treatment for prevention and have access to it," he explained. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, (WHO) explained the results of the study as "a crucial development, because we well know that sexual transmission accounts for about 80 per cent of all new infections".

UNAIDS said it would convene a meeting with other key association tackling the scourge of AIDS to discuss the trial and its implications for the reply to the disease. In July, WHO is also releasing new guidance to assist HIV-positive people to keep their partners. The two agencies stressed the need for couples to make proof-based decisions on which combination of HIV prevention options was best for them, and that anti-retroviral therapy supply as one of the options made available. "No single method is entirely protective against HIV," the agencies said in a joint press statement. "Treatment for prevention wants to be used in combination with other HIV prevention options.

Syphilis

Syphilis is a bacterial infection, mainly a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Any sexually active person can be impure with syphilis, although there is a larger incidence among young people between the ages of 15 and 30 years. It is more common in urban than rural areas. Syphilis is spread by sexual contact with an infected person, with the exception of congenital syphilis, which is extending from mother to fetus. Transmission by sexual contact requires exposure to moist lesions of skin or mucous membranes. The symptoms of syphilis happen in stages called primary, secondary and late. The first or primary sign of syphilis is usually a sore(s), which is painless and shown at the site of initial contact. It may be accompanied by swollen glands, which expand within a week after the appearance of the initial sore.

The sore may last from one to five weeks, and may evaporate by itself even if no treatment is received. Approximately six weeks after the sore first appear, a person will enter the second stage of the disease. The most common indication during this stage is a rash, which may appear on any part of the body including trunk, arms, legs, palms, soles, etc. Other indication may occur such as tiredness, fever, sore throat, headaches, hoarseness, loss of appetite, patchy hair loss and swollen glands. Symptoms can show from 10 to 90 days after a person becomes infected, but usually within three to four weeks. Symptoms are often not noticed or are thought to be slight abrasions or heat rash and medical care is not required.

Syphilis is considered to be infectious for a period of up to two years, possibly longer. The extent of communicability depends on the existence of communicable lesions (sores), which may or may not be visible. There is no natural immunity to syphilis and past infection offers no defense to the patient. Syphilis is treating with penicillin or tetracycline. The amount of action depends on the stage of syphilis the patient is in. Pregnant women with a history of allergic response to penicillin should undergo penicillin desensitization followed by appropriate penicillin therapy. A baby born with the disease requirements daily penicillin treatment for 10 days.

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Sexually transmitted diseases among Aussie youngsters on the rises

Experts have called for a new HIV awareness movement after it was seen that venereal disease among young Australians has skyrocketed.According to federal government figures, the number of chlamydia cases doubled to 60,000 over the four years to 2008, and people matured between 20 and 29 are the group at highest risk.

Professor Michael Kidd, who chaired a ministerial advisory group on sexual disease strategy, says the higher infection rates mean young people are ignoring the government's safe-sex ad movement.The surge in risky lifestyle, he said, could also result in an enlarge in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS).

"That's one of the grave concerns," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Professor Kidd as influential reporters on May 27 in Sydney."The concern is that if we see a condition like Chlamydia on the rise, that indicate that there's a lot of unsafe sexual practices occurring and of course that sets up an situation where HIV transmission can increase as well," he stated. 

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