70,000 people in Germany suffer from AIDS

70,000 people in Germany suffer from AIDS. Every year around 3000 people become infected with the HI virus, as revealed by an evaluation by the Robert Koch Institute.

21/11/2010

On the occasion of the World Aids Day on December 1, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced that in Germany approximately 70,000 people are infected with HIV and / or suffer from the immunodeficiency syndrome Aids. According to the RKI, about 3,000 people became infected with HIV last year.

The number of new HIV infections corresponds approximately to the figures from previous years, according to the RKI. However, according to the RKI Institute, fewer and fewer infected persons die as a result of the improved medical treatment due to the effects of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In 2010, there were approximately 550 deaths. At the same time, medical care enables AIDS patients to live almost normal lives. While the health consequences of the disease are now reasonably well under control for those affected, the social interaction with those infected with AIDS has barely changed. Nationwide, about 3,000 people a year are infected with the HI virus. Today, AIDS is not a life-threatening disease, but a chronic disease, thanks to better drug therapy, as recently stated by Federal Health Minister Philipp Rösler.

To this day, society is having a particularly difficult time dealing with those affected. HIV-infected people are still being bullied and marginalized. Anyone who suffers from AIDS, also thinks because of the expected reactions exactly with whom he speaks about the disease. Here, the World AIDS Day encourages those affected openly to deal with the issue and also promotes greater social understanding. AIDS should not be repressed as a social problem, because people who underestimate the risk of infection do not protect themselves adequately and there is a risk of desolidarization with those affected, emphasize the initiators of the World AIDS Day.

Therefore, for example, in Berlin with the project „Voices in the city“ be made aware of the problems of those affected. Dr. Christoph Weber, an HIV doctor at the Berlin Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum, talked with his patients about their lives with the incurable disease of the immune system and recorded the conversations. From the 25th of November they will be heard on loudspeakers in the public squares of Berlin and thus attract the attention of passers-by. (Fp)

Also read:
Precursors of AIDS viruses tens of thousands of years old
AIDS: SI virus is considered a precursor to HIV
Why some people do not get AIDS despite HIV
World AIDS Day: more solidarity demanded
AIDS: No fate with real antibodies?

Picture credits: Stephanie Hofschlaeger