Global fight against HIV/AIDS brings hope to patients

Alexandre, a former United Nations official with brown eyes and dark hair, has been living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), for four years and is planning to write a book about it. The 38-year-old French was infected after having sex with a man in Lebanon in 2007. Only 17 percent of his protection abilities were alive when he got tested one year later and he had to jump into a third-phase treatment as doctors advised. "I was shocked and had a huge feeling of emptiness, as if all the things that defined my daily life were falling," Alexandre recalled in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, who preferred his last name not to be disclosed. The man that used to travel around the world then decided to quit his job, fly back to his hometown Paris, confess to his family and friends, and cherish every moment of his life. So far he has been used to the current simpler, healthier lifestyle with regular medical treatment and not much fear about the future. "The only moment I remember I am sick is when swallowing all my pills, and I don't feel it in my daily life," he said. Like Alexandre, tens of millions of HIV patients across the world are getting more effective treatment and longer life expectancy than ever, as this year marks the 30th anniversary of the global fight against HIV/AIDS. "GAME-CHANGING YEAR" The past 12 months had been a "game-changing year" in the global campaign against HIV/AIDS, as the latest report of UNAIDS, the UNITED Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS, suggested early signs that HIV treatment was playing a significant role in reducing new infections, said Michel Sidibe, the executive director of UNAIDS. The number of AIDS-caused death fell from a peak of 2.2 million in the mid-2000s to 1.8 million in 2010, while new HIV infections worldwide dropped by 21 percent to 2.7 million from 1997, according to the report released earlier this week. There is no cure for the disease, but the combination antiretroviral treatment (cART), the only therapy for now, is proving to be effective in keeping the virus under control and giving HIV patients a near-normal life. The UN also said that 2.5 million deaths had been prevented in low- and middle-income countries for increased access to the treatment since 1995. Another report published Thursday by the Dutch HIV Monitoring Foundation echoed the UN's conclusion. It suggests that the AIDS fight in the Netherlands is "cautiously optimistic." "In general, Europe has done a good job in containing the epidemic as its total number of HIV cases is stable," said Professor Frank de Wolf, the foundation's founder and director. Over 60 million people have been infected with HIV since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s, and about 34 million people lived with HIV in 2010. Sub-Saharan Africa is by far the worst hit area, holding 68 percent of HIV cases last year while its population only accounts for 12 percent in the globe. HIGH-RISK GROUP TARGETED Alexandre would have had fewer struggles if he had gone for a test earlier. Experts highly recommend that the high-risk group, who are sexually active or share needles, take regular tests at sexual health clinics preferably every six months. In the Netherlands, for example, nearly 98 percent of HIV infection was through sexual activities, over half of which were men having sex with men (MSM), and only 2 percent was through drug use. Not surprisingly, there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people in the Netherlands who do not know their HIV infection, while in Britain about 25 percent of the people living with HIV are undiagnosed. "But the number and frequency of testing is going up as people are more aware of the risks," said Professor Wolf, who is also a registered physician and medical microbiologist with the University of Amsterdam. Compared to the drug users that are mostly marginal and uneasy to reach in the society, homosexual population has an improved testing behavior, according to Wolf. In Western Europe, more attention has been paid to MSM for HIV prevention and treatment, while drug users are much more concerned in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia and the Baltic states.