Today is World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS day. The first AIDS victim was detected in the USA, in 1981. As at December this year around 33 million of the worlds population have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

As much as 90 percent of the victims are from developed countries. By 2007 around 2.5 million fresh cases have been detected with the virus.

In Sri Lanka the first HIV victim was detected in 1987. By 2009 September HIV and patients had risen to 1181. Of them those that developed the AIDS condition numbered 116. Three hundred and two of these people have been confirmed as AIDS victims.

Sri Lanka has witnessed 197 deaths due to AIDS, 41 of them being children. It is estimated that there are between 3800 - 4000 persons have been afflicted with HIV upto date.

The spread of HIV in the country has been primarily due to unsafe sex practices and at present 184 serious cases are treated with Anti-Retroviral drugs.

Speaking at a conference to mark World AIDS Day, HealthCare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said Sri Lanka was one of the countries with a low rate of HIV/AIDS and attributed this to the high literary rate and strong cultural roots. In addition, the various and AIDS campaign carried throughout the country too had helped considerably.