PROJECT OVERSEAS 2011

1. PROJECT OVERSEAS 2011 Teachers Teaching Teachers HIV/AIDS WORKSHOP

2. HIV/AIDS is a complex health issue The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) weakens the immune system, hindering the body’s ability to fight other opportunistic infections (OIs). What is HIV/AIDS The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic, progressive illness and leaving infected people vulnerable to opportunistic infections and cancers. The median time from infection to AIDS diagnosis now exceeds 10 years. AIDS is fatal. There is no cure.

3. HIV & Tuberculosis HIV and TB are closely linked; an increased pool of TB infection in a community contributes to the spread of TB among people living with HIV and everyone else as well. Consequently, as a result of HIV, some countries face the twin epidemics of HIV and TB.

4. How Education Can Prevent the Spread of HIV/AIDS In the short and medium term, education has the potential to: • provide knowledge that will inform self-protection • foster the development of a personally held, constructive value system • inculcate skills that will facilitate self-protection • promote behaviour that will lower infection risks • enhance capacity to help others to protect themselves against risk In the long term, education has the potential to: • alleviate conditions such as poverty, inequality, ignorance, gender discrimination and social exclusion that facilitates the spread of HIV/AIDS • reduce vulnerability to risky situations such as prostitution and over-dependence of women on men

5. How Education Can Prevent the Spread of HIV/AIDS When infection has occurred, education has the potential to: • strengthen the ability to cope with personal infection • strengthen the capacity to cope with family infection • promote caring for those who are infected • help young people affected by HIV to stand up for their human rights • reduce stigma, silence, shame, discrimination When AIDS has brought death, education has the potential to: • assist in coping with grief and loss • help in the reorganization of life after the death of family members • support the assertion of personal rights

6. Illnesses associated with AIDS Aside from shingles, which can happen at any stage of HIV disease, other opportunistic infections do not happen unless the HIV infected person has an immune system that has been severely weakened by the virus. Even without treatment for HIV, it usually takes 10 to 12 years before individuals develop these complications. • KS (Kaposi’s sarcoma, a form of blood cancer) • Pneumonia (pneumocyctis carinii pneumonia – PCP) a form of pneumonia common in HIV disease • Thrush (yeast infection caused by candida) • Tuberculosis (caused by mycobacterium-TB) Lung disease • Wasting, diarrhea – caused by natural environmental contaminant found in household dust, soil and water • Cervical cancer in women • Cytomegalovirus – CMV, a herpes virus that invades the retina of the eye (retinitis) and can cause blindness

7. AIDS Facts: Where it is HIV is found in high concentrations in the following types of fluid: semen (and pre-ejaculate fluid), vaginal secretion, blood and breast milk. How it is transmitted HIV does not survive long outside the body and can only be transmitted when certain types of fluid from an infected person enter into an uninfected person. HIV is transmitted through: • unprotected sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal or oral) with an infected person • needle-sharing (including steroids) to inject drugs or for body piercing or tattooing, with an infected person • an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery or by breastfeeding • blood transfusions • occupational exposure in the health care setting

8. AIDS Facts: There are 4 stages in the development of AIDS • Acute Infection Stage: During the very early (first days to few weeks after the virus has been contracted) stages of infection, some people develop a non-specific flu-like illness. This is also known as the window period as the usual test used to diagnose HIV infection (an antibody test) can be negative, because it takes a few weeks for the body to develop an immune response to the virus. • Asymptomatic Stage: Having contracted the virus, but showing no physical symptoms or signs of infection. (The virus can be passed from one person to another at this stage.) • Symptomatic Stage: The person’s body starts to show physical symptoms or signs that are mild or severe, frequent or infrequent and they may fluctuate with medical treatment (drug therapy). • AIDS Stage: Acquiring the Syndrome pattern of “Immune Deficiency” when the body’s immune system has broken down to the point that it can no longer fight off opportunistic infections (OI). The infected person becomes weaker and weaker.

9. How to prevent sexual transmission Sexual transmission of HIV CAN BE PREVENTED. Intercourse (homosexual and heterosexual) is the major route of transmission of HIV. Prevent this transmission by abstinence (the only 100% effective prevention) and practicing mutual monogamy (having sex with only 1 partner who has sex only with you) The correct and consistent use of latex condoms (male and female) during sexual intercourse- vaginal, anal, or oral-can greatly reduce a person’ s risk of acquiring or transmitting most STDs, including HIV infection, gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonas, human papilloma virus infection (HPV), and hepatitis B.

10. How to prevent transmission by blood Infection through blood can be STOPPED. Prevent infection through blood through the following practices: • test blood for transfusion for HIV infection and discard if contaminated • needles, syringes, and other skin-piercing instruments used in scarring and tattoo practices should be sterilized or discarded after each use and should NEVER BE SHARED. All equipment must soak in BLEACH for more than 2 minutes to be sterilized. HIV can live in an unclean syringe for up to 3 weeks.

11. AIDS Myths: Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, or those thought to be at risk of infection, violates individual human rights and endangers public health. It gives people outside of the stigmatized group a sense that the threat of infection to themselves has been removed. It also drives the AIDS problem underground, making all efforts at prevention and care more difficult. • HIV is NOT transmitted through blood donations • HIV is NOT transmitted through mosquito/bug bites • HIV is NOT transmitted through sharing cups and utensils • HIV is NOT transmitted through sneezes/coughs • HIV is NOT transmitted through hugging, touching or dry kissing an HIV infected person • HIV is NOT transmitted by the sharing telephones, computers or coffee pots • HIV is NOT transmitted by going to public places where HIV infected people have been (pools, theatres, etc.) • HIV is NOT transmitted through drinking fountains or toilet seats

12. Why is Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) important Effective HIV/AIDS care requires antiretroviral therapy as a treatment option. Without access to antiretroviral therapy, people living with HIV/AIDS cannot attain the fullest possible physical and mental health. Health care workers will remain disempowered and cannot contribute to the fight against HIV to the fullest of their potential. Children will be orphaned earlier, stigma and discrimination will continue to be fuelled by the perception that HIV infection is a death sentence.

13. What ART is Antiretroviral drugs inhibit the replication of HIV. When antiretroviral drugs are given in combination, HIV replication and immune deterioration can be delayed, and survival and quality of life improved. All people who need antiretroviral therapy should have access to it. The World Health Organization (WHO) proposed as a target that by 2005, 3 million people should have access, and called for the adoption in resource-limited settings of a public health approach to antiretroviral treatment as a tool to reach this goal. Antiretroviral therapy coverage in sub-Saharan Africa, 2003-2007 Source: World Health Organization

14. How ART is administered For the successful use of ART there should be access to specific services and facilities: • HIV counseling and testing and follow-up counseling services to ensure psychosocial support and adherence to treatment • capacity to appropriately manage HIV related illness and opportunistic infections • a laboratory that provides tests for monitoring treatment • a continuous supply of antiretroviral and medicines for the treatment of opportunistic infections and other HIV related illnesses • reliable regulatory mechanisms

15. HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean Statistics show that at the end of 2008, an estimated 240,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. Some 20,000 people were newly infected during 2008, and there were 12,000 deaths due to AIDS.The Caribbean are the second-most affected region in the world (after sub-Saharan Africa). Half of the individuals living with the virus are women. The main route of HIV transmission in the Caribbean is heterosexual sex. Much of this transmission is associated with commercial sex, but the virus is also spreading in the general population. Sex between men is also a major factor in some countries' epidemics. Cultural and behavioural patterns (such as early initiation of sexual acts, and taboos related to sex and sexuality), gender inequalities, lack of confidentiality, stigmatization and economic need are some of the factors influencing vulnerability to HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean. Source: avert.org.

16. LIVE UP: Love. Protect. Respect. LIVE UP: Love.Protect.Respect. is the Caribbean's first media-led campaign on HIV/AIDS. Developed by the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS (CBMP), a coalition of more than 92 leading television and radio broadcasters representing over 24 nations. LIVE UP inspires individual action- to do what is within YOUR power to help stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. To Love, Protect and Respect.

17. HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

18. HIV/AIDS in Ghana

19. Le VIH/sida en Afrique