28 - HIV disease infections
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2023
Summary
This category covers HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), plus other deaths caused by other immunodeficiencies. Under ICD-9 about half of all deaths in this category were due to HIV. Under ICD-10 (since 2000/01) four fifths of deaths in this category were due to HIV. The increase is due to rising cases of HIV over time.
Male and female deaths are mapped separately as the rates are so different (see also the age–sex bar chart). The highest SMRs are found in Inner London, Edinburgh (at one time labelled the ‘drugs capital of Europe’) and Dundee.
Over 800 of these deaths were due to haemophiliacs (who are male) contracting HIV through contaminated blood products (www.taintedblood.info). The development of antiretroviral drugs delays the onset of AIDS, thus prolonging life.
HIV/AIDS was first identified in the USA in 1981, coincidentally the first year of data included in this atlas. The total number of deaths thus includes all deaths that have ever occurred from this cause in Britain.
AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which slowly destroys the body’s defences against diseases (the immune system). When this has happened, you have AIDS, and certain infections and cancers can easily develop and be fatal. HIV is spread sexually, in semen and other genital secretions, and the person’s blood is also infectious. Mothers can infect their babies both during vaginal delivery and by breast-feeding.
People are infectious any time after the initial infection with HIV, long before AIDS occurs.
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- The Grim Reaper's Road MapAn Atlas of Mortality in Britain, pp. 58 - 59Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2008