World AIDS Vaccine Day – HIV Status
The HIV virus causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). It’s a disease with a set of symptoms or syndrome caused by the virus. Well, this disease has lots of myth, and people who suffer from it are not seen as a good person in society although they might have got the disease in some other ways. This virus mainly attacks the immune system and weakens it. Hence it reduces the ability of a person to recognize and fight against infections.
Below are some of the common ways to get HIV:
- Unprotected sexual contact
- Injection used for more than one person
- Passed from mother-to-baby during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding
- If the blood of infected person gets in contact with others via transfusion or any injury
Watch: HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
AIDS as a Global Issue
Now let’s look at the global level and when was AIDS first discovered. The HIV virus was first discovered in the 1920s, and since then, huge research is being conducted to deal with the disease; but to date, no vaccine is successfully developed. Though there are some ways through which patients can live a longer life, an efficient way to be HIV-free is yet to see the light of the day.
Let’s look at some statistics at the global level of HIV in 2018.
According to the above graph, in 2018
- 9 million were living with HIV
- 7 million people were newly infected
- About 77000 died
But the good thing is that these numbers are declining year by year. Compared to 2004, in2018 56% lesser HIV cases were detected.
A lot of efforts have been worldwide to fight this disease. Now let’s look at the scenario in India – How it started and how India has dealt with the HIV spread.
AIDS in India
The first case was reported in India in 1986 among female sex workers in Chennai. The current national prevalence is about 0.26% (age 15-49) compared with a global average of 0.2%. In India, HIV infections reached a peak in 1988, and since then there has been a declining trend due to the continuous effort of many organizations and the government of India. This disease is at a very low level among the general population vs. high-risk groups like sex workers.
Currently, India with 2.1 million HIV patients is the world’s 3rd largest HIV population after South Africa (7.1 million) and Nigeria (3.2 million) but it has more to do it with the population of India being 1.3 billion.2 Now when we look deeper state-wise these statistics out of 2.1 million(21 lakhs) HIV, Maharashtra has highest no of people living with HIV ( PLHIV) (3.3 lakhs) and then followed by Andhra Pradesh (2.70 Lakh), Karnataka (2.47 Lakh), Telangana (2.04 Lakh), West Bengal (1.44 Lakh), Tamil Nadu (1.42 Lakh), Uttar Pradesh (1.34 Lakh) and Bihar (1.15 Lakh). And these all are 75% of total cases.
Also, adult HIV prevalence in India is 0.28%, compared to South Africa’s 18.9%, as per UNAIDS data, 2017.
So, what has happened in terms of infections, let’s look at stats up to 2017 in comparison to 2010 as per UNAIDS3
- There has been a decrease of 46% in new HIV infections
- AIDS-related has been declined by 56% decrease since 2010
- Also, there has been a decline of new HIV infections from 120, 000 to 88, 000
This decline has been because of a focus on the high-risk groups and providing them access to tests and treatment services. The decline in the spread of AIDS was also a result of the decentralized approach taken by many NGOs as well as Govt. institutes.
Now let us look at the year-wise HIV deaths in India as per report given by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).
The above figure shows that there was a hike in 2004-2006 and since then there has been a decline. With the decline in the number of HIV deaths, the new challenge is the high number of HIV infected patients. While the decline has been due to the efforts on educating and building awareness on AIDS, very little has been done to sensitize the society on living with HIV patients. There is a need, not only in India but at the global level as well, to stop the stigma against HIV survivors. Eradicating the disease from the root level, no doubt is the ultimate goal of every government.
According to NSP (National Strategic Plan {2017-2024}), below are the significant objectives to fulfill the vision of AIDS-free India.
- To reduce 80% of new infections by 2024 (Baseline 2010)
- Ensuring that 95% of PLHIV know their status by 2024
- Eliminating mother to child transmission
The Future of AIDS Vaccines and Challenges
As far as the vaccine is concerned many attempts have been made and still many attempts are going for HIV cure. There has been some success in terms of HIV drugs up to some level, but eradicating HIV is still like a dream for many researchers and scientists.
Any vaccine takes 10-20 years for its development. Like right now we are dealing with COVID 19 and we all are hoping for its vaccine. And COVID 19 has badly impacted all over the world.
Read: COVID-19 and It’s Impact On The 3 Pillars Of Sustainability
So what will a vaccine do, if developed? It will help the immune system to respond to HIV by making antibodies that will bind with the virus and will stop it from infecting other cells.
Now let’s see what the major challenges are in developing an HIV vaccine:
- The vaccine produces antibodies to neutralize infection but in this case of HIV, neutralizing antibodies do not clear the infection. As HIV reproduces very fast.
- Also, no vaccine can guarantee 100% of zero infection.
- Another difficulty is that HIV has many subtypes which makes it difficult to develop one universal vaccine.
- HIV integrates into human cells which makes it difficult to find an efficient way of delivering HIV proteins so that the immune system can recognize HIV.
Right now several trials are going in different parts of the world to develop a vaccine for AIDS. At the same time, there are methods to prevent this disease as it only spread in some ways and sex education is one of the worldwide which can help to reduce this disease spread. Its because Education can also remove the social stigma of this disease and help people deal with AIDS in an effective and appropriate manner.
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- Published in Blogs