HIV/AIDS 101

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HIV/AIDS 101 continued

• Anthropology 393 Cultural Construction of
  HIV/AIDS
• Josephine MacIntosh

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Questions from Yesterday

• What is Selenium?
• A trace mineral that is essential to good health
• Only required in small amounts
• Incorporated into proteins to make selenoproteins
  -- important antioxidant enzymes
• Help prevent cellular damage from free radicals
• Free radicals linked to chronic diseases such as
  cancer and heart disease
• Other selenoproteins help regulate thyroid
  function and play a role in the immune system

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What Foods Provide Selenium?

• Plant foods, some meats and seafood
• Some nuts (especially Brazil nuts)
• BUT the selenium content in food depends on the
  selenium content of the soil it was raised in/on
• Selenium deficiency most often reported in
  regions with low selenium content in the soil

4
Recall

• Blood transfusion is the most efficient route for
  HIV infection
• Sexual transmission is the most common route of
  infection
• 75 to 85 of all HIV infections are sexually
  transmitted

5
Evolution of a Pandemic

• We typically think of a new epidemic in a
  virgin population as something that arises
  suddenly, sweeps through the population in a few
  months, and then wanes and disappears (Anderson,
  199671).

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Epidemic Curves

• Classical epidemic curve is bell-shaped
• Steepness of slope is a measure of infectivity or
  contagion
• Length of the curve describes duration of
  epidemic
• Highly infectious diseases (like measles)
• Short period of infectiousness (generally 2
  weeks)
• Relatively short duration (typically 6 months to
  a year)

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Epidemic Curves

• Not so with HIV/AIDS
• Marked by elongated curve
• Lengthy period of infectivity, enduring over
  generations
• Several distinct peaks
• As it moves through different populations (MSMs,
  IDUs, etc)

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Infectious Diseases Can Be

• Endemic
• Relatively low but constant presence of the
  disease in a specific geographic area or
  population group
• Epidemic
• More cases of a disease occur than are expected
  in a given area or group

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Infectious Diseases Can Be

• Pandemic
• When an epidemic affects large proportions of a
  population and spans a wide area (several
  countries or continents
• HIV/AIDS
• May have been endemic to a specific region
• Is currently a full-fledged epidemic
• Global distribution gives it pandemic status

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Incidence Vs. Prevalence

• Incidence
• Refers to the total number of persons who became
  newly infected in a given year
• Prevalence
• Refers to the total number of persons who were
  living with the infection at the end of a given
  time period

11
Doing the Math

• In a 1988 study, a mathematical model was used to
  predict future HIV infection rates based on known
  AIDS cases
• The prediction A slow but continuous
  development of the AIDS epidemic over many
  decades...where the numbers of cases of HIV
  infection (and hence AIDS) increase faster as
  time goes on, in compound interest fashion
• (Anderson May, 199258)

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Doing the Math

• Using this mathematical model and assuming
• Exponential growth
• A doubling time of 3 years
• It would take
• 30 years for the prevalence of HIV to change from
  0.001 to a detectable level of 1
• 3 years to change from 10 to 20 percent
  (Anderson May, 199259)

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Doing the Math

• Currently, the epidemic is spreading at twice the
  initial predicted rate
• Between 1999 2002, infection rates have
• DOUBLED in East Asia the Pacific
• Increased 2 ½ times in North Africa Middle East
  
• Almost TRIPLED in Eastern Europe Central Asia
• Eastern Europe Central Asia currently have the
  fastest-growing epidemic in the world

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Prevalence
Incidence
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