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| Sunday, 19 May 2002 |
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Age group 15-49 more prone to HIV virus by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE People between the age group of 15 to 49 in Sri Lanka are more susceptible to HIV Positive virus due to unprotected sex, a recent survey carried conducted in the country has revealed. The survey was carried out by the National Sexually Transmitted Diseases/AIDS control program for first quarter of the year 2002. According to the findings 80 percent of the people between the ages 15-49 in Sri Lanka have contracted HIV/AIDS disease by having unsafe sex. Estimates show that around 8,500 Sri Lankan adults have HIV/AIDS for the first quarter of year 2002. Dr. Mrs. Hirathi Wijemanna of the UNICEF told the Sunday Observer that the main sources of HIV infection was through sexual intercourse, although the virus could also be transmitted through contaminated blood transfusion or by using contaminated needles to inject drugs. Dr. Wijemanna said that the situation was relatively better than countries like South Africa and India. But there was no reason for us to be complacent about it. She attributed the spread of the disease due to increased pre-marital sexual activity among young people. "Persons today marry rather late in life and there is an increase in sexual activity among young persons. Sexuality reaches a peak when a person is between the ages of 18-24 years". she said. She said telling young persons to abstain from pre-marital or casual sex was a difficult task due to changing socio-economic and cultural patterns. However the spread of HIV positive could be avoided to a great degree by the use of condoms. Dr. Iyanthi Abeywickrema of the STD/AIDS Control programme of the Ministry of Health said that eighty percent of the HIV positive cases here were persons between 15-49 age groups. According, estimates around 8,500 people in Sri Lanka are believed to be infected with HIV/AIDS up to the first quarter of the year 2002. The first Sri Lankan infected with HIV was reported in 1987 and the first indigenously transmitted HIV case was reported in 1989. Unlike in the West, the numbers of HIV/AIDS infected persons in Sri Lanka have not yet been separated. Asked whether HIV positive virus could be transmitted through contaminated blood supply from the National Blood Bank, she said 1.6 million units of blood was thoroughly being screened and were no such cases reported so far. She said that mother-to-child transmission was the most significant cause of HIV infection in children. According to UNAIDS estimates 2,200 women and 200 children in Sri Lanka were living with HIV/AIDS. Asked how bad the situation was in India, she said there were about 3.9 million people infected with HIV/Aids virus. But the situation wasn't so bad comparing to the population of India. According to UNAIDS reports the country with the highest number of HIV Positive and AIDS was South Africa. According to UNAIDS figures every 10 seconds a youth between the ages of 15-24 was getting infected with HIV/AIDS. The total number of persons infected with HIV positive in the world was around 34.3 million. The spread of aids in Asia was reaching epidemic proportions with countries like Cambodia, Burma and Thailand have already began documenting figures. 4 per cent of adults in Cambodia and 2 percent in Thailand are HIV positive. |
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