Estimated worldwide HIV infection rate: 59 081 251 at noon on Wednesday, September 15
Underestimated: The number of Aids cases in Japan is slowly increasing, and the number of HIV-positive people in the country is estimated to be far higher than the number reported.
In 2003 the government recorded 336 new Aids cases but only 640 new HIV cases, a number that was ‘far lower than expected.” Since Japan began tracking HIV/Aids cases in 1985, the government has recorded 2 892 Aids cases and 5 780 HIV cases, excluding cases caused by HIV-tainted blood transfusions.
Although the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has opened testing centres on weekends and increased the number of no-cost tests it offers, gynaecologist Tsuneo Akaeda, who estimates that the number of HIV-positive people should be approximately 10 times greater than the number of Aids cases, said: ‘It’s already too late. Japanese people don’t get themselves tested. For young people, free testing conflicts with their schedules.”
Masanori Suzuki, head of the Aids Health Care Section at the health ministry, agreed that there are probably more cases than have been identified. A majority of the new HIV/Aids cases have been linked to sexual contact, and the increases could be related to ‘home-delivery” commercial sex work, sex tourism, lack of condom use and a lack of HIV-testing.
Source: Kaiser Network