Name Event Date Name Event Date 1 Why the HIV/AIDS virus is smarter than you! Gudmund Hernes UNESCO HIV/AIDS COORDINATOR

Name Event Date Name Event Date 2 The perennial battle against microbes They are  Small  Many (Zillions!)  Easily transported  Mutate fast  Can hide long  Multiply quickly

Name Event Date Name Event Date 3 What does a virus want?  To multiply and conquer the world!  Cannot do it alone  Must hijack a cell  And multiply inside it  Then burst out in thousands  Each of which each can hijack another cell

Name Event Date Name Event Date 4 What does a stupid virus do?  Kills its victim before it can it can infect another victim  Can be spotted quickly  Is easy to recognize  Scares people to use barriers to stop the spread (e.g. by quarantine)

Name Event Date Name Event Date 5 SARS – a smart virus?  Attacked young and old alike  Spread rapidly from country to country  9000 infected / 900 died  Scared the whole world  Enormous losses to airlines and hotels

Name Event Date Name Event Date 6 Protective measures  SARS highly infectious – person to person contact (sneeze, talk, touch, drinking from same glass)  Short incubation period (8 days)  Easy to detect (fever, headaches, shortness of breath)  Fear of SARS triggered rapid – and drastic! – reactions

Name Event Date Name Event Date 7 People were quick to “cover-up”  Few chances were taken for being contaminated  People individually and collectively took measures to protect themselves  Masks took on a “new look”  The virus was to virulent and scary for its own success

Name Event Date Name Event Date 8 HIV – a successful virus?  SARS killed some hundreds  HIV/AIDS killed more than 20 million!  HIV has conquered the world:  60+ million infected  All countries affected  HIV is all the time on the attack:  more infected each day!

Name Event Date Name Event Date 9 HIV – a really smart virus! The medical reasons  HIV is not particularly contagious:  You have to do something to get it  Simple precautions can avoid infection  Long incubation period: 8-10 years  Not visible or recognizable for a long time  Infects, hides and multiplies in the body’s defense cells!

Name Event Date Name Event Date 10 A really smart virus 2 The social reasons:  Main mode of transmission: sex  Associated with passion and lust  Associated with shame: Sex and sin  We enjoy more doing it than talking honestly about it  The best ally of the virus is prejudice  So it is sustained by a conspiracy of silence:  Shame associated with protection and  Stigma and discrimination against infected

Name Event Date Name Event Date 11 The essential element: protection ! Protection from SARS is cumbersome Protection from HIV simple: - No unprotected sex - No sharing of needles

Name Event Date Name Event Date 12 Why HIV is smarter than you:  Even smart people do not follow these rules:

Name Event Date Name Event Date 13 FOR EXAMPLE: MEDICAL STUDENTS – KNOWING ALL THE FACTS - YET:  “More than half of male medical students don't practice safe sex on holiday” BMJ 2003;327:184 (26 July)

Name Event Date Name Event Date 14 To protect yourself, you have to be smarter than these medical students:  To prevent sexual transmission of HIV, we need a combination of rules: “ABC”  No promiscuity  abstinence  Be faithful  Behavior change  Put no-one in harms way  Consistent condom use

Name Event Date Name Event Date 15