Education slows down the AIDS epidemic

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The AIDS catastrophe is growing in size as the world marks the International AIDS Day on 1 December. But there are sprouts of hope, thinks Knut Fylkesnes, researcher at UoB.

Fresh statistical figures from UNAIDS, an organisation of the UN, confirm that the AIDS epidemic continues to increase in size, first of all in Sub-Saharan Africa. 40 million people are infected with HIV worldwide. It is assumed that 25 million of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“It is difficult to be an optimist. But at the same time there are huge differences among the various regions. In some areas where efficient preventive work has been carried out we can observe a sharp decrease in the number of infected people,” says Knut Fylkesnes, Professor at the Centre for International Health at UoB.

Condom campaigns work

Fylkesnes has been involved in HIV/AIDS-related research for more than ten years and is the leader of several HIV/AIDS-preventive projects in Africa and Asia. He has been watching closely how the epidemic has developed in Zambia, Vietnam and Cambodia – three rather different countries where the spreading of the HIV virus develops differently.

“In Cambodia we succeeded in turning the epidemic around. The rate of infection that was 4 percent earlier is now down to 2-3 percent. The virus has spread mainly due to prostitution. The campaigns for the use of condom have worked. But the same campaigns did not have the same effect in Vietnam. In this country the epidemic is spread by both drug addicts using a needle and prostitutes they are in contact with,” Fylkenes says.

Measures to change sexual behaviour and make people use a condom have had limited effect also in African countries. But not everything looks hopeless. Professor Fylkesnes has followed the development in Zambia for many years and in parts of the capital, Lusaka, a pronounced decrease of the infection can be observed.

“This occurs among educated people. Their behaviour has changed rapidly. It can be interpreted as a positive sign, because long-term change usually starts in social groups with the most education. But it can also be explained in a way that there are groups that we have not reached yet,” says the researcher at UoB.

Nevertheless, the conclusion is that education itself is an important weapon in the battle against HIV/AIDS.


Focus on women

The International AIDS Day focuses this year on women and girls who become earlier infected than men. Biologically, women get infected easier. Lacking education and economic resources strengthen the abuse and oppression women are exposed to in many societies, which again leads to more people getting infected.
Although there are obviously more women getting HIV/AIDS in Zambia Fylkesnes can track some positive trends that break with this patters – and again among those who have a certain level of education.

“Based on our data from Lusaka, the infection among young women is decreasing, while it stays low among young men. It gives us hope,” says Fylkesnes.

The University of Bergen is currently involved in several research projects in the Sub-Saharan Africa through the NUFU Programme. In addition, the Research Council of Norway has just granted funds for a new HIV/AIDS-preventing project in Africa, in which UoB plays an important role.

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