AIDS Disease In Israel
Israel is a country situated in the Middle East with a population of approximately 6,847,000. The country is characterized by low incidences of sexually transmitted diseases, a fact that various studies have correlated with male circumcision. This is because most males in this country are circumcised due religious beliefs in both Islam and Judaism. Moreover influences of both tradition and religious are still very well-built in the Middle East including Israel, and social taboos addressing issues on sexuality, drug abuse are central, along with the great respect for the family value. But these low incidences of HIV/AIDS are mainly attributed to the government supportive role and dedicated medical professional who have successful instilled awareness among the people on how to manage and prevent HIV/AIDS.
According to research information released by Israel authorities by the end of 2006 reported that a total of 4999 HIV cases, the report also showed that a total of 1042 of the individuals that had been infected with HIV developed AIDS inclusive of 653 who had succumbed to the pandemic. The report also showed majority were infected heterosexually followed by sex between men (WHO 2006). Also the information released by Israeli HIV/AIDS registry indicated that in 2006, 246, 908 people went through HIV testing. The testing indicated that that, almost half of the new cases were from persons originating from countries with generalized HIV epidemic (State of Israel2006).
Israel government has put down strategies that ensure majority of the people go through HIV testing so that they know their status, something that has seen the number of HIV infections to go down drastically with 2006 reporting the lowest number of HIVand AIDS cases since 1989. For instance HIV testing is compulsory for a prisoner at entry. This strategy has made it possible to minimize the spread of HIV among the prisoners. Also the test is systematic among the blood donors and immigrants from countries where the pandemic is highly prevalent. The government has made it sure that HIV testing is confidential and accessible to anyone requesting it by putting up AIDS centres throughout the country together with health maintenance organization clinics. For instance the Jerusalem AIDS project is charged with the responsibility of equipping the people with professional knowledge on HIV/AIDS not only in Israel but also in the Middle East and developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The department of tuberculosis and AIDS and public health in Israel make sure that the patients have an access to specialized treatment and also giving the psychological support. These departments are expected to remove all administration barriers for the patients by supplying them with most of the medical care and support care including anti-retroviral and other drugs directly at the regional HIV centers. By minimizing the administrative procedures and giving support care to the patients, these departments aims at improving compliance to treatment which has not been very effective. (State of Israel 2006)
Israel has not been left behind in research on HIV and AIDS. Researchers have relentlessly continued to give HIV and AIDS victims hope and make them see that HIV aids is no longer a death sentence. For instance Researchers in Israel at the IBM research lab (HRL) have actively taken part in the European consortium aimed at coming up with an integrated system for anti-HIV treatment. The main aim of this consortium is to improve EUresist which is a European integrated system for clinical management of anti-retroviral drug resistance (ISRAEL21c 2005). This research aims at solving the problem of drug resistance by the virus. Also Nutracea company (a company that manufactures Risolubles ) in collaboration with Hadassah university medical center in Jerusalem has carried out a clinical study on Risolubles as a supportive therapy for HIV/AIDS patients. This research aimed at validating Anecdotal evidence of immunological benefits from humanitarian feeding programs with Risoluble (R) (Red orbit 2006).
The pioneering work of Israel has been felt in the medical field especially in researches that attempt to get a treatment of AIDS and effective management of the disease. Israel is accredited for the immense breakthrough despite the fact that the disease is rare in Israel. Before the end of 2006, Israel had had made a lot of contributions to finding the best way to treat this pandemic. Some of the contributions include development of Hypecirin, a drug with effective anti-viral characteristics and whose anti-viral properties were documented at Weizmann institute. Vimrxyn, Hypecirin-based drug is planned to be tested for treatment of AIDS. This new vaccine developed by Israel researchers at Hadassah university center and Weizmann institute of science could have an impact in treatment of AIDS patients. This vaccine aims at arresting the autoimmune destruction process by the virus. This is a development of the convenctional cocktail medications which kills only the virus and allows the affected immune system to continue killing health cells. Therefore this invention is based on straightening the body immune system against the effects of the virus. ( Israel Faxx 2005)Also medical researchers in Israel have developed artificial blood that will help reduce incidences of transmission of the virus through blood transfusion. Currently there are many reaches going on and are yet to be concluded. For instance an Israeli-American firm called phermos/ pharmatec is working on how to improve the method for delivering AZT to the brain. Also Hebrew university medical researchers are working on what they believe will help people infected with AID form avoiding more serious infection and neurological disorders.
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