Niko
Editor, Senior Moderator
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="98%"><tbody><tr><td class="title">Africa: One in five HIV infections caused by medical staff </td></tr> <tr><td class="textsmall">Published on 12-02-2009</td></tr> <tr><td>
Source: Telegraph
Nearly five million new cases annually are caused by erratic health practices, according to the authors of a series of papers in a publication backed by the Royal Society of Medicine.
The findings raise questions the international effort to combat HIV and Aids, which focuses largely on trying to stop virus transmission through unsafe sex or from mothers to their unborn children.
Researchers accused governments of ignoring up the problem so as not undermine existing health schemes.
John Potterat, an epidemiologist and one of the editors of the International Journal of STD and HIV, said: ?Governments and international health agencies have deliberately chosen to ignore the evidence.
?The studies now show directly that many Africans are at risk from a wide range of common skin puncturing practices that may involve contaminated instruments and materials.
?By uncritically accepting the orthodox view that HIV is almost exclusively transmitted by sex, public health workers and researchers are complicit in prolonging avoidable suffering.?
He and 11 other scientists will publish a series of papers in the journal on Tuesday, to coincide with World Aids Day.
More than 22 million people living in Africa have the HIV virus, which leads to Aids. An estimated 2 million died in 2008.
In one of the studies, patients at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in south eastern Nigeria who contracted HIV were significantly more likely to have had blood tests, vaccinations, blood transfusions or surgical procedures. Half of the patients who received tetanus vaccinations reported seeing needles being reused.
Another study in the journal, published by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, an affiliate organisation of the Royal Society of Medicine, looked at rates of HIV infection among children in Swaziland.
HIV infections there are the highest in the world at 26 per cent of the adult population, reducing the country?s average life expectancy to 32 years.
Using data from the Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey, the authors found that one in five Swazi children aged two to 12 who are infected with the virus have HIV-negative mothers.
These children had experienced many more medical injections and vaccinations than their uninfected brothers or sisters. Most of these related to anti-malaria health programmes.
Africans are subject to a much higher proportion of injections and blood tests than patients in the West, according to a 1999 study for the World Health Organisation.
That research found that a wide range of common symptoms such as colds, ear infections, fatigue and tonsillitis were treated with injections rather than oral medication.
The study concluded that at least 50 per cent of these were unsafe, with needles being used repeatedly on one patient after another, without sterilisation.
?HIV priorities have been and continue to be misplaced,? said Stuart Brody, a professor at the University of the West of Scotland, in Paisley, who has researched the spread of HIV in Kenya through tetanus vaccinations.
?The mindset is to pretend this is not an issue, perhaps because of the received wisdom or because you don?t get funding if you question it, but this does not save lives.? But Dr Anna Thomas, head of economic and social development at ActionAid Kenya, said: ?The use of unsterilised needles is one of the many issues affecting HIV/Aids in Africa. ?But the vast majority of the spread of HIV/Aids is down to unsafe sex between men and women and that is where we need to continue to focus our efforts.?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...e-HIV-infections-caused-by-medical-staff.html
</td></tr></tbody></table>
Source: Telegraph
Nearly five million new cases annually are caused by erratic health practices, according to the authors of a series of papers in a publication backed by the Royal Society of Medicine.
The findings raise questions the international effort to combat HIV and Aids, which focuses largely on trying to stop virus transmission through unsafe sex or from mothers to their unborn children.
Researchers accused governments of ignoring up the problem so as not undermine existing health schemes.
John Potterat, an epidemiologist and one of the editors of the International Journal of STD and HIV, said: ?Governments and international health agencies have deliberately chosen to ignore the evidence.
?The studies now show directly that many Africans are at risk from a wide range of common skin puncturing practices that may involve contaminated instruments and materials.
?By uncritically accepting the orthodox view that HIV is almost exclusively transmitted by sex, public health workers and researchers are complicit in prolonging avoidable suffering.?
He and 11 other scientists will publish a series of papers in the journal on Tuesday, to coincide with World Aids Day.
More than 22 million people living in Africa have the HIV virus, which leads to Aids. An estimated 2 million died in 2008.
In one of the studies, patients at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in south eastern Nigeria who contracted HIV were significantly more likely to have had blood tests, vaccinations, blood transfusions or surgical procedures. Half of the patients who received tetanus vaccinations reported seeing needles being reused.
Another study in the journal, published by the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, an affiliate organisation of the Royal Society of Medicine, looked at rates of HIV infection among children in Swaziland.
HIV infections there are the highest in the world at 26 per cent of the adult population, reducing the country?s average life expectancy to 32 years.
Using data from the Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey, the authors found that one in five Swazi children aged two to 12 who are infected with the virus have HIV-negative mothers.
These children had experienced many more medical injections and vaccinations than their uninfected brothers or sisters. Most of these related to anti-malaria health programmes.
Africans are subject to a much higher proportion of injections and blood tests than patients in the West, according to a 1999 study for the World Health Organisation.
That research found that a wide range of common symptoms such as colds, ear infections, fatigue and tonsillitis were treated with injections rather than oral medication.
The study concluded that at least 50 per cent of these were unsafe, with needles being used repeatedly on one patient after another, without sterilisation.
?HIV priorities have been and continue to be misplaced,? said Stuart Brody, a professor at the University of the West of Scotland, in Paisley, who has researched the spread of HIV in Kenya through tetanus vaccinations.
?The mindset is to pretend this is not an issue, perhaps because of the received wisdom or because you don?t get funding if you question it, but this does not save lives.? But Dr Anna Thomas, head of economic and social development at ActionAid Kenya, said: ?The use of unsterilised needles is one of the many issues affecting HIV/Aids in Africa. ?But the vast majority of the spread of HIV/Aids is down to unsafe sex between men and women and that is where we need to continue to focus our efforts.?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...e-HIV-infections-caused-by-medical-staff.html
</td></tr></tbody></table>