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Issue Description
It is estimated that over 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide and around three million people die from AIDS each year. AIDS develops when the immune system has been weakened by the HIV virus and can no longer fight infections. How is HIV transmitted and how can it be prevented? This book looks at the AIDS epidemic globally and at HIV and AIDS in the UK.
The information comes from a variety of sources, including government reports and statistics, newspapers and magazine articles, surveys and polls, academic research and literature from charities and lobby groups; articles have been tailored to an 11 to 14 age group. Additionally, at the end of each chapter are two pages of activities relating to the articles and issues raised in that chapter.
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Key Facts
- Worldwide, it is estimated that over 40 million people are living with HIV and around three million people die each year from AIDS-related illnesses. (page 1)
- The HIV virus weakens the immune system so that eventually it can no longer fight diseases – this is called having AIDS. People with AIDS can die of illnesses which the immune system might normally be able to fight off, such as pneumonia. (page 2)
- Research published on 26 November 2007 shows that one in seven young people interviewed in Britain would not be willing to stay friends with someone if they had HIV and only 32% are worried about getting HIV. (page 10)
- According to UNAIDS, less than 20% of people at risk of HIV infection have access to basic prevention. Only 11% of the world’s pregnant women have access to services to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). (page 15)
- There is no cure for HIV. However, there are drugs that can stop HIV reproducing and can drive down the amount of the virus in the body to very low levels. (page 17)
- Around the world, more than 15 million children under 18 have had one or both of their parents die from AIDS – a number that is expected to reach 20 million by 2010. (page 18)
- People with HIV in wealthy countries are living about 13 years longer due to improvements in combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), according to new research by the University of Bristol. (page 22)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: The AIDS Crisis
HIV and AIDS, HIV in developing countries, Record UK HIV diagnoses, What do you know about AIDS?, The stigma of HIV and AIDS, Living with HIV, Activities.
Chapter Two: Fighting AIDS
Stop HIV: beyond ABC, Treatment for HIV, Protect the children, Millions receiving HIV medicine, HIV patients living longer, A cure for AIDS, Activities.