Australia wiped out by AIDS

something to think about

Published on June 14, 2004 By Phoenixboi In Blogging

On 14 June 2004 at 18:48:09 (Canberra time), the resident population of Australia is projected to be:
20,121,158 Link

AIDS deaths to date: Worldwide estimates 21,800,000 (estimates until the end of 2001
Link

Now imagine that the whole of the population of Australia was infected by HIV and died.. shocking hey.

Comments

mignuna

on Jun 14, 2004

as an australian, to know that the aids virus has claimed the lives of the equivalent of our entire living population is horrifying. those numbers are so immense, so terrible, that i was hoping i had misread. to put it another way, the aids virus has killed about as many people as chinas' population expands by each year. despite these alarming facts (i won't call them statistics, because they are facts), aids research seems to have taken a back burner to more "trendy" causes lately. thankyou for your affort to bring some sense to all of this. good luck to you

mig XX

Phoenixboi

on Jun 14, 2004

aids research seems to have taken a back burner to more "trendy" causes lately

Thanks for reading and commenting miguna!

To let you know whats going on in Australia with the Howard government and HIV programs.

I quote a recent article in the Sydney Star Observer Thursday 3 June 2004: by Tim Benzie.

"HIV/AIDS public health programs could lose $4million in federal government funding during the next four years.""A spokesman for Health minister Tony Abbott told the Sydney Star Observer there were a number of factors determining each state's funding, including population numbers, levels of mortality and socio economic factors. When asked whether the rise in NSW's HIV infection rates was significant, the spokeswoman said "that's one disease. You've got one lobby group calling you about one disease . What about kidney disease, what about heart disease, what about cancer? It's not as simple as just pulling out one disease. They (NSW) get a pool of money and they can determine how they spend it. So if they dont think that they should spend it on HIV funding that's completely upto them."

"ACON president Adrian Lovney told the Star the cuts would be a severe blow to services for people living with HIV. Recent rises in HIV Infection demanded more rather than less government funding. he said. The Canadian government just announced a substantial increase in HIV funding to respond to the increase in infections and here we see the federal government in Canberra attempting to do the opposite, Lovney said. State funded services such as PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) could be wound back to cover the shortfall, as well as services offered by associations such as PLWHA (NSW). Free testing at venues such as Albion Street could also be constrained. "

So miguna, the rates of HIV infection are rising in Oz and around the world. But the conservative governments are cutting the spending. Does it make sense?

Cheers and thanks for posting!

greenfarie

on Jun 14, 2004

You know what's even scarier? Countries in Africa have a 80% Aids rate. That means that more than 1in 2 have aids. It gets spread though many men leaving their wives to work in larger cities, having sex with prostitutes and then coming home and having sex with their wives. Many african tribes also participate in "dry" sex. In some places, it is believe that having sex with a virgin cures aids. Unfortunately, due to lack of education and health resources, not enough can be done to stop aids. Several countries in Africa on the bright side have turned their aids rate around and have been able to set up successful education programs for the population. There is hope yet, it's just slim. Perhaps the stigma that's attached doesn't help a whole lot

greenfarie

on Jun 14, 2004

For anyone also interested in the AIDS epidmeic--

as of the end of 2003

40 million people live with AIDS
5 million contracted HIV in 2003 alone
3 million died in 2003 from AIDS

info from 2003 UNAIDS and WHO 2003 AIDS epidemic update

more than half of the 40 mil are located in approx, 10 African countries.

to know more about this subject please visit UNAIDS

Phoenixboi

on Jun 14, 2004

Thanks greefarie

Have you checked out my other articles on my blog? You might find them interesting.

Cheers!

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