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HIV/AIDS – reality and myths

HIV/AIDS – reality and myths
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Coffee Beans 14.05.2025 

Prof. RNDr. Vanda Boštíková, Ph.D.
Prof. RNDr. Aleš Macela, DrSc.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 36.9 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV, the etiologic agent of AIDS. Around 1.2 million infected people die of AIDS every year, which is a significant decrease compared to the past, but it is not a victory over the infection, it is only a consequence of the progress of our therapeutic capabilities [1].

Since 1 October 1985, 38717390 samples have been tested in the Czech Republic as of 31 December 2024, 4,888 HIV-positive persons have been identified, of whom 922 have developed AIDS. The number of people infected with HIV and the number of people who have developed AIDS is increasing year by year. Although the increase in the number of cases is not critical, it is an alarming trend. Given the worldwide spread, a certain degree of care and self-control is necessary when travelling abroad to popular destinations.

Zanzibar, for example, has a “concentrated” HIV/AIDS epidemic on both Pemba and Unguja islands. The first three cases of AIDS in Zanzibar were officially reported in 1986, and since then the number of people infected with HIV has been steadily increasing [2]. In Senegal, there were more than 44,000 people living with HIV in 2023 [3]; at the same time in Thailand, the number was only an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 [4].

Thus, misconceptions and myths about AIDS are one of the significant problems of HIV spread. Probably the most dangerous myth that resonates in Europe and other economically developed countries on other continents is the idea that HIV is a curable disease. This misconception stems from the fact that there are anti-retroviral drugs that, although they suppress the amount of HIV in the body, the patient is never cured, only the development of his AIDS disease is significantly slowed down [5]. In the less developed countries of Central Africa or Latin America, then, it is the myth of an effective alternative or natural medicine capable of curing AIDS. No such treatment is available.

A fundamental misconception commonly held in these countries is that HIV can be transmitted by casual contact, e.g. hugging an infected person, shaking hands, sharing food, using shared towels, toilets, etc. This leads to stigma and widespread discrimination against patients, who often face social stigma, unnecessary isolation and exclusion from the community. Another widespread myth is the belief that HIV is transmitted by mosquitoes, even some rodents. Yet it is now completely undisputed that the HIV virus is spread through unprotected sexual contact, through the body fluids of an infected individual, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids or breast milk. It is also present in saliva or urine but in such low concentrations that there is no real risk of transmission unless these fluids are contaminated with infected blood [1, 7, 8 ]. In countries where the situation is becoming critical, such as Rwanda, awareness programmes are organised by national and international organisations (WHO, UNAIDS) to explain in the simplest and most understandable way the principles of the spread of infection and the necessary anti-epidemic measures. In general, they emphasize that the only possible treatment to slow the development of AIDS is antiretroviral therapy [7-10].

Let’s look at relatively recent history. The narrative of the deliberate spread of HIV from the US was and is still presented as a propaganda claim from the former Soviet Union on various information platforms. The Soviet Union came up with the claim during the Cold War that the US had developed HIV as a biological weapon. The Soviet secret police (KGB) and the German Stasi conducted targeted operations on the African continent – distributing materials claiming that AIDS was a home-grown evil manufactured in the US, imported into Africa to exterminate the local population and enable US imperialists to control the wealth of the black continent.  The narratives were taken up so successfully by African activists (Mbelin, Zuna) that they succeeded in fundamentally undermining trust in Western medical institutions. Africans refused to be tested, as well as to take antiretroviral therapy. As a result, HIV spread across the continent at an unprecedented rate. Although the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program is questionable due to its promotion of sexual abstinence at the expense of condom distribution, investment in antiretroviral drugs, prevention, and care for those infected with the HIV virus has quite fundamentally helped to reverse the set line of growth in infections. This 2003 programme is one of the most significant directed at tackling a single disease [11].

However, despite all the awareness-raising work, public health workers are still confronted with a number of successfully spread misinformation that complicate the situation and may frustrate all efforts to reverse the number of newly identified HIV-infected persons. In addition, stigma against people with HIV is still prevalent, in effect discouraging many people from getting tested, seeking treatment and support. This is particularly true for adolescents and young people who very often, despite their risk behaviours, feel a false sense of security about HIV. It is therefore very important, including in the Czech Republic, to pay increased attention to educating the population, because generational memory is very short and it could very easily lead to a dangerous reversal of the incidence of AIDS due to the influence of social networks.

References

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