On Monday, November 26, Scotland health officials launched a campaign to curb the rise of new HIV infections in the country’s heavily populated Lothian region, which includes the capital city of Edinburgh. In 2007, 89 cases had already been reported by this past September, compared with 99 total new cases in 2006 (news.scotsman.com, 11/27).
The HIV Comeback Tour will focus on raising awareness through bus advertising, posters and strategically placed postcards. Health officials attribute the rise in new infections to unprotected sex among gay and bisexual men.
“Therapies have improved for people with HIV, so there has been a perception that somehow HIV has gone away or is less serious than it once was,” says Jim Sherval of National Health Service Lothian. “However a life on antiviral medicines is no fun and not catching the virus at all is clearly a better option.”
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
