Winning Bizness Desk
Mumbai. On World AIDS Day i.e. 1 December, when the whole world including India was engaged in spreading awareness about this deadly disease, many shocking information came to the fore. Last year in 2021, over 10 lakh new cases were reported worldwide and 6.5 lakh people lost their lives. The disease is the 9th leading cause of death in low-income countries. However, owing to the increasing use of condoms, its cases are decreasing. In 1999, the World Health Organization named HIV AIDS as the fourth largest cause of death in the world, and then men lost the most lives due to AIDS in America. India is still at number three in the world in this matter, and the main reason for this is that men avoid using condoms.
Hesitation related to condom is a big reason
According to the report released by UNAIDS in 2022, by 2021, there were 24.01 lakh AIDS patients in India, including 10.83 lakh women and 51 thousand children. All these children are below the age of 12 years. According to the National Family Health Survey-5, only 1 out of 10 men use condoms. It was also found that female condom doesnt give protection to either partners. Teenagers are also becoming sexually active due to lack of sex education and easy access to misinformation. Gynecologist Meera Pathak says that using condoms is considered a shame in the society. Even today men hesitate to buy condoms. Some people are uncomfortable after wearing a condom. Women have to bear the brunt of this in the form of unwanted pregnancy and AIDS.
What does the Condom Alliance report say?
According to this report, only 27% of men and 7% of women used condoms before marriage and only 13% of men and 3% of women admitted to always using condoms. It is clear from this that many people are still not aware about the use of condoms. At the same time, according to the report of the American Journal of Health Behavior, men do not get satisfaction from using condoms. However, many men feel that they do not need condoms at all.
Gay couple at higher risk of HIV!
On November 30, the US Senate passed a bill protecting gay marriage. That is, now LGBTQ community members can marry gay. Many researches show that there is a high risk of spreading HIV in same-sex relationships. According to a report by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, men who have sex with men are at a higher risk of spreading HIV. Men having multiple sex partners is also a reason for this. On the other hand, if there are lesbian couples, then the risk of spreading HIV is less in them. Men are ahead in getting tests done but women do not get tested quickly. Because of this, more male patients come forward.
Patients get free medicine
According to Dr. P. Venkata Krishnan, AIDS is an incurable disease. In this, the patient has to take 2-4 medicines daily throughout his life, so that the effect of HIV virus remains minimum and the patient's immune system does not become weak. Actually, AIDS patients have more and quicker fungal or viral infections than normal people. The government has set up ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) centers at many places where free medicines are given to the patients. At the same time, on getting treatment from a private hospital, the cost of only medicine goes up to 15-20 thousand rupees per month.
