One in ten patients experienced 'severe' clinical
effects and one in six had severe blood abnormalities.
page 5 of 8
contents
of issue 73/74
back
issues
the
gazette
recipes
small
ads
contacting
us
weblinks
Sonnabend: hetero Aids 'negligible' risk in West
A veteran HIV specialist has forecast that, in developed countries, detectable
HIV infection is unlikely ever to spread widely among heterosexuals. And
he says that treating diseases such as TB could be as important as treating
HIV in stopping the heterosexual epidemic in Africa.
Dr Joseph Sonnabend, writing in the US magazine POZ, tries to answer an
unsolved puzzle: the vast
Sonnabend: hetero Aids risk 'negligible'
difference between the HIV epidemic in Africa, where it appears to spread
mainly heterosexually, and developed countries, where it rarely does.
Male heterosexual infections acquired in the UK, for instance, have averaged
24 per year since 1991 - three cases out of every thousand - and show
no signs of increase.
The crucial difference in Africa, Sonnabend suggests, is the high prevalence
of other diseases such as TB and malaria. These damage the immune system
and activate individual immune cells so they become more receptive to
HIV. And untreated
sexually transmitted infections, also widespread, mean that both men and women have more HIV in their genital tract.
