HIV/AIDS numbers revisited

As December 1 AIDS world Day approaches, UNAIDS has unveiled its previous estimates on the pandemic as not as bad. After making a reassessment on people living with HIV/AIDS in India, in an UNAIDS report it emerged total infections are now at 32.7 million cases. Not the 39.5 million cases UNAIDS gave in 2006. Nevertheless, what that the reduction of the estimates means depends on the side of the pandemic gap you are living. For most high-income countries, HIV/AIDS has slowly become a chronic disease, that is, one that people can manage for a long time without sudden fatal effects. For people living in the fringes on a low-income country, it means HIV/AIDS continues to be a deadly pandemic. It is not only access to drugs what matters the most. It is the limited understanding of how the HIV/AIDS affects social, legal, labor and family environments. In the developed world, some social society organization did mange to take over the world campaign from UNAIDS but its effects are still to be access fully. An NGO based in Amsterdam- World Aids Campign- has been given the enormous task of reaching a varied world audience. Its two-year campaign with the same images and messages for a worldwide audience seems lacking. It is difficult to imagine its message being heard at communities in the third world with little internet access or a slow post office; language is also another issue in those communities as most do not speak the language the message is currently most available.   Condom use, HIV/AIDS maternity, criminality and HIV are still out of focus from the public agenda and preventive campaign. How to keep improving access to both HIV/AIDS drugs, preventive information and the well being of those already infected seems to be more important than making accurate estimates. Estimates are numbers to be used for public and private policy design; reduction of both stigma and discrimination is much more that just numbers.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o />