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THE GENESIS - EVENTS CALENDAR |
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| 1998 History |
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- In Canada there was an outbreak of HIV infection amongst injecting
drug users in Vancouver.
- In some countries HIV positive people were able to return to work as
a result of the improvement in their health due to combination therapy
drug treatment.
- San Francisco started a pioneering Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)
program giving HIV drugs to people that might have been exposed to HIV
through sexual contact or through needle sharing by injecting drug use.
- In July, the 12th International AIDS conference was held in Geneva.
The challenge of this conference was not only to discuss the advantages
available for the treatment of HIV virus, but to conquer the
overwhelming pessimism as well.
- In South Africa, Gugu Dlamini, an AIDS activist, was beaten to death
by her neighbors after revealing her HIV positive status on Zulu
television.
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Country |
Estimated new HIV infections 1998 |
| North America |
44,000 |
| Caribbean |
45,000 |
| Latin America |
160,000 |
| Western Europe |
30,000 |
| North America/Middle East |
19,000 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
4 million |
| Eastern Europe/Central Asia |
80,000 |
| East Asia/Pacific |
200,000 |
| South Asia/South-East Asia |
1.2 million |
| Australia & New Zealand |
600 |
| Global total |
5.8 million |
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| 2000 history |
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- At the beginning of 2000, it was reported for the first time in 1999
the number of newly diagnosed heterosexually acquired HIV infections was
higher than the number of newly diagnosed homosexually acquired HIV
infections in the UK.
- In May, at the opening of the first meeting of the presidential
advisory panel on AIDS in South Africa, President Mbeki offered his
first detailed explanation of why he had consulted the two American
researchers. He also explained why the 33-member presidential AIDS
advisory panel consisted of people who believe that HIV causes AIDS and
as well as those who not.
- Five pharmaceutical companies offered to negotiate steep cuts in the
price of AIDS drugs for Africa and other poor regions. A couple of
months later the United States offered sub-Saharan African nations loans
to finance the purchase of AIDS drugs and medical services. The offer
was not seen as a solution to a HIV/AIDS crisis and it was rejected by
many African nations.
- According to the UNAIDS report, there were 34.3 million people
infected with HIV worldwide, of whom 1.3 million were children under the
age of 15. They also reported that AIDS would cause early death in as
many as half of the teenagers living in the hardest hit countries of
southern Africa, causing population imbalances. In particular, it was
predicted that two thirds of the 15 years -olds in Botswana would die of
AIDS before reaching age 50.
- In July, the 13th International AIDS Conference was held in Durban,
South Africa. This was the first time that such a conference was held in
a developing country or in Africa. Nkosi Johnson, 11-years old
HIV-positive boy gave a speech in the opening ceremony of the conference
and called for the government to give AZT to pregnant HIV-positive
mothers.
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| 2001 history |
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- China's most senior AIDS researcher stated that China could soon
have one of the highest numbers of HIV infections in the world.
Infections were predicted to grow from about 600,000 to 6 million by
2005. It was believed that nearly 75% of China's HIV patients have
contracted the disease through injecting drug use or transfusion with
contaminated blood.
- Indian drug company Cipla offered to make AIDS drugs available at
reduced prices to the international aid organisation Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF). Cipla's offer to produce drugs at a price less than
US$ 1 day put further pressure on multinational drug companies.
- In August, AIDS activists took legal action against the South
African health ministry over its continuing refusal to supply
antiretrovirals to prevent mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HIV.
In December, it was ruled that the South African government should give
free access to nevirapine to reduce the risk of MTCT of HIV. The judge
ordered the government to set up a nationwide MTCT programme with a
deadline for implementation report to be handed back to the court by
March 2002.
- Zimbabwe's government announced that it would dissolve the board of
the National AIDS council, after allegations of inappropriate political
support and mismanagement of funds. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV
infection rates in Africa. It was estimated in 2001 that AIDS had
orphaned 1 million children and 25% of Zimbabwe's 12 million population
were HIV positive.
- A former Japanese Health Ministry official was found guilty of
negligence for failing to stop the sale of untreated blood products.
Over 1,800 haemophiliacs had contracted HIV in Japan since the early
1980's from untreated blood and more than 500 have died.
- A senior Iranian health official warned that the number of AIDS
cases in the country has risen dramatically. In the past, Iranian
officials estimated the number of HIV-positive people to be around 2,000
but the Deputy Health Minister said that the real figure was now more
than 15,000.
- The Statistics for 2001, is represented below with data from the
UNAIDS
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| 2002 history |
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- Ukraine became the first nation in Europe to have 1% of its adult
population infected with HIV.
- The Chinese Government announced a 17% jump in AIDS cases. The
government estimated that the number of people with AIDS was as high as
200,000 of which more than half of this number were presumed already
dead. It was also estimated by the government that up to 850,000 people
were infected with HIV by the end of 2001 in China. These figures were
still way below the estimates by experts at the UN and the WHO - who
said that as many as 1,5 million could have been infected.
- The National Statistics Institute in Lisbon announced that there
were 104.2 HIV cases per one million Portuguese residents in 2000,
compared with 88.3 cases in 1999. This was the highest rate of HIV
infection in the European Union. The European average is just under 25
cases per million residents. It was believed that injecting drug use is
the main source of HIV infection in Portugal.
- Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country demonstrated how
suddenly HIV/AIDS epidemics could emerge. After more than a decade of
low HIV prevalence rates, the country was seeing infections rates
increasing rapidly among injecting drug users and sex workers with rates
as high as 40% in drug treatment centers in Jakarta.
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