World AIDS Campaign 2000
Each year on the first of December the global community commemorates World AIDS Day. It provides us with the opportunity to highlight the status of the AIDS epidemic, raise awareness, focus attention on the challenges ahead to further strengthen commitments in the fight against the epidemic that has cost more than 18 million lives globally since it began in 1981.
This year's theme, .Men Make a Difference. focuses on the role of men. Men are an important factor in spreading the HIV virus which causes AIDS. Men on average tend to have more sex partners than women and moreover, HIV is more easily transmitted from men to women than vice versa. HIV-positive injection drug users, who are mostly male, can transmit the virus to both their drug partners and sex partners. Men often have unprotected sex with commercial sex workers (women or men) and infect their wives. Male violence especially through forced sex drives the spread of HIV in many settings. Often times, male behaviour that contributes to the spread of HIV is based on cultural beliefs and expectations and heightens men's own vulnerability.
Men are fuelling the epidemic, but men are also part of the solution in their roles as politicians, front-line workers, fathers, sons, brothers and friends. Not all men are to blame and a careful balance needs to be struck between recognizing how men's behaviour contributes to the epidemic and recognizing their potential to make a difference. The theme this year aims at involving men more fully in taking up their responsibilities in stopping the further spread of HIV, by changing their sexual and/or drug taking behaviours that put them at risk of acquiring or spreading HIV infection.
There are four main reasons for focusing the World AIDS Campaign on men and boys.
Men's health is important but receives inadequate attention .
In most settings, men are less likely to seek needed health care than women, and more likely to engage in behaviour. such as drinking, using illegal substances or driving recklessly . that puts their health at risk. In stressful situations, such as living with AIDS, men often cope less effectively than women.
Men's behaviour puts them at risk of HIV .
While HIV transmission among women is growing, men. including adolescent boys . continue to represent the majority of people living worldwide with HIV or AIDS. In some settings, men are less likely to pay attention to their sexual health and safety than are women. Men are more likely than women to use alcohol and other substances that
lead to unsafe sex and increase the risk of HIV transmission, and men are more likely to inject drugs, risking infection from needles and syringes contaminated with HIV.
Men's behaviour puts women at risk of HIV .
On average, men have more sex partners than women. HIV is more easily transmitted sexually from men to women than vice versa. In addition, HIV-positive drug users . who are mostly male . can transmit the virus to both their drug partners and sex partners. A man with HIV is therefore likely to infect more people over a lifetime than an HIV positive woman.
Men need to give greater consideration to AIDS as it affects the family.
Fathers and future fathers should be encouraged to consider the potential impact of their sexual behaviour on their partners and children, including leaving children behind as AIDS orphans and introducing HIV into the family. Men also need to take a greater role in caring for family members with HIV or AIDS.
