What are the chances of an individual in Britain contracting HIV or developing AIDS?

Jul 20 2004

Being Positive, a two-part investigative Open University/BBC series for BBC Three, examines the nature of the virus, how it works and the history of the development of HIV drug treatments. Part one, Dead Unlucky and part two, Dead Lucky, showing on BBC Three on Thursday, July 29th and Thursday August 5th at 9.30pm follow the stories of people who have been infected.

At the age of 18, Joanne – now 22 – became infected with HIV from her first sexual partner. After they were together a few months, he persuaded her to have unprotected sex. She said: “When I found out I was HIV positive it totally messed my head up. I don’t deserve it. I have been cheated out of my youth.”

Joanne became ill within a week of having unprotected sex. Her mother always advised her to practise safe sex and protect herself against sexually transmitted diseases. Like most people Joanne believed HIV happened to others and it wouldn’t happen to her.

It took a long time for Joanne to accept she was HIV positive. After the first diagnoses she was in shock and depressed for years. She said: “It irritates me how easily he got away with it. My dad treated me really badly at first; he didn’t want to use the same cup I used. I don’t feel I am good enough in a relationship now, I don’t feel that I am deserving of someone. I know so many people who are aware that I am HIV but it hasn’t stopped them having one night stands.

Soon after she was diagnosed, her boyfriend left and Joanne has since found out that he slept with other women. They too may unknowingly be infected and may be infecting others.

The programme highlights research from leading scientists in the field of virus and disease control who have found that the risk of contracting HIV depends on:

• Gender – women are 20% more likely than men to contract the virus in a one-off sexual encounter.
• Age – the younger a person, the more susceptible they are.
• General health – the chance of someone contracting the virus is hugely increased if they already had a sexually transmitted disease. The risk rises further if they had even the tiniest of cuts or wounds.
• Which strain of HIV a person is exposed to.
• The type of sex a person had.

The series travels to San Francisco to visit men from the gay community that experienced the first AIDS cases in the West in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thirty years on, the programme meets some of the men who had sexual encounters with an air steward who was, allegedly, responsible for the initial widespread of the virus in this region.

Then the programme visits Uganda where the disease has wiped out a third of the young adult population. Based on studies in Uganda, the series explains how and when the virus moved from chimps to man. In a comparison of their sexual behaviour, the programme shows that chimps and humans are not as dissimilar as we might like to think. Such similarities are helping scientists understand the way the virus spreads.

Being Positive concludes that the high estimates of AIDS and HIV infection, as predicted for the UK in the early 1980s, were wrong but, worryingly, the latest statistics do reveal a growing trend in HIV infection, particularly amongst heterosexual groups, and that the chances of becoming infected are increasing.

For more information on the series, HIV and AIDS log onto www.open2.net.