AIDS has already claimed the lives of more than 25 million people throughout the world, while an estimated 33.2 million live with HIV – alarming numbers highlighting the need to remain vigilant vis-à-vis one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.
To mark World AIDS Day, commemorated every year on December 1, Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has invited European Health Ministers to join him in a pan-European effort to spread common messages on prevention and increasing the awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS among young Europeans. He encouraged ministers to visit schools and 11 countries agreed to participate in this initiative. Ministers will be visiting schools in their countries today and in the days to come. The Commissioner himself is today visiting a high school in Cyprus, where he plans to present a new TV-spot promoting the use of condoms and safer sex and have a chat with teenage students on HIV/AIDS.
"We must remain vigilant and must keep in mind the fact that HIV/AIDS is still one of the biggest preventable killers world-wide,” Commissioner Kyprianou said. "Improved knowledge, awareness and information are essential tools that young people must acquire and it is our responsibility to provide them with all necessary information and guidance. Prevention remains the best cure”
Focus on youth
The ministerial visits fall within the context of a plan to focus this year’s activities on youth in schools. A very timely intervention indeed as recent reports from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) point to the fact that high-risk sexual behaviour is once again on the rise among young people throughout Europe. So are infection rates. Between 1998 and 2005, the number of new HIV diagnoses in men and women infected through heterosexual contact and in men infected through sex with men (MSM) doubled.
Furthermore, the 2006 Eurobarometer survey on AIDS prevention revealed an astonishing lack of basic knowledge on certain facts regarding HIV and AIDS. About 54% of young people in the old Member States (EU15) were of the opinion that one could contract HIV by drinking from the same glass as someone infected with the virus. This highlights the need to scale up awareness and to invest further in prevention efforts. It further demonstrates that we have no reason to sit back and forget about this "old" disease. The young Europeans of today did not follow the successful prevention campaigns of the late ‘80s. European societies have to take responsibility and provide young people with essential information on HIV and AIDS.
Targeting school students and bringing them closer to the problems around HIV transmission and other important issues related to HIV/AIDS is a means of addressing the problem of high-risk sexual behaviour. By making this a Europe-wide initiative, the Commission wants to amplify awareness messages, and to create a positive, resonant impact on a European level.
"We must remain vigilant and must keep in mind the fact that HIV/AIDS is still one of the biggest preventable killers world-wide,” Commissioner Kyprianou said. "Improved knowledge, awareness and information are essential tools that young people must acquire and it is our responsibility to provide them with all necessary information and guidance. Prevention remains the best cure”
Focus on youth
The ministerial visits fall within the context of a plan to focus this year’s activities on youth in schools. A very timely intervention indeed as recent reports from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) point to the fact that high-risk sexual behaviour is once again on the rise among young people throughout Europe. So are infection rates. Between 1998 and 2005, the number of new HIV diagnoses in men and women infected through heterosexual contact and in men infected through sex with men (MSM) doubled.
Furthermore, the 2006 Eurobarometer survey on AIDS prevention revealed an astonishing lack of basic knowledge on certain facts regarding HIV and AIDS. About 54% of young people in the old Member States (EU15) were of the opinion that one could contract HIV by drinking from the same glass as someone infected with the virus. This highlights the need to scale up awareness and to invest further in prevention efforts. It further demonstrates that we have no reason to sit back and forget about this "old" disease. The young Europeans of today did not follow the successful prevention campaigns of the late ‘80s. European societies have to take responsibility and provide young people with essential information on HIV and AIDS.
Targeting school students and bringing them closer to the problems around HIV transmission and other important issues related to HIV/AIDS is a means of addressing the problem of high-risk sexual behaviour. By making this a Europe-wide initiative, the Commission wants to amplify awareness messages, and to create a positive, resonant impact on a European level.
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