Kitty's Corner

It's the first of December today, and it's World AIDS Day, the day where people all over the world try to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.

I post about this subject every year, because I think it's important that people get more aware of this disease. In my country it's mostly gay men who get it, and also junkies, who get it from infected needles.

But in other, more poor countries, it's not necessarily like that. If you look at it world wide, there are much more woman and girls who get it than men. Women who don't decide over their own bodies and their sexuality.

Alarmingly it has been reported that men will still pay more money for unprotected sex with a sex worker. I simply don't understand that! Those men are risking not only their own lives, but also the lives of the sex worker and/or wife at home. Morons!

There are now 33.4 million people living with HIV, according to 2008 figures released by WHO. An estimated 2.7 million were newly infected with the virus and 2 million died of AIDS the same year.

We have about 5.250 HIV infected persons in Denmark, plus additional 1,000 who don't know they're infected yet. We had 236 new cases of HIV infected persons last year. Two thirds of them were men.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV. In 2008, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 67% of HIV infections worldwide, 68% of new HIV infections among adults and 91% of new HIV infections among children. The region also accounted for 72% of the world’s AIDS-related deaths in 2008.



World AIDS Day. Every year on December 1st!