World Day Against AIDS

Belgrade has had an AIDS dispensary - Counselling Center which works as part of the City Health Care Institute since 1987. The dispensary is small, it occupies only two rooms, but funds were this year earmarked to adapt and renovate the premises. Although a proposal for the construction of a modern Counselling Center was submitted in 1990 and an adequate lot was found, the plan has not been implemented yet. The dispensary also serves as a counselling center as each patient is interviewed before he is tested for AIDS. The interview is conducted by a doctor-epidemiologist in charge of the dispensary. "We are mostly visited by people who want to take the AIDS test, patients whom other doctors suspect have AIDS and those leaving the country and needing a certificate," says Dr. Nevenka Zakula, head of the City Health Care Epidemiological Department.

"In the 1985-1995 period, 888 persons with HIV were registered in Belgrade: 368 of them had AIDS and 293 died from this lethal disease. Since the beginning of the year, 63 new people infected by HIV were registered in the city; 55 of them have AIDS and 36 died from it" says Dr. Zakula. "By October, our Counselling Center tested 2,160 people for AIDS, 23 of them because of high-risk heterosexual behaviour. The number of people tested because they had risky heterosexual contact has grown this year; last year their number was 163. Between four and five percent of the patents tested for engaging in high-risk heterosexual contacts are HIV-positive" Zakula said.

A panel discussion on the occasion of was held in the Belgrade Youth Center on 20 November to mark the World AIDS Day, on 1 December. The discussion had attracted a lot of interest.

"The Institute also organized lectures for health care staff, coordinators of health education, home care nurses. We told them about the current epidemiological situation in Belgrade regarding HIV and passed out the translation of the publication about AIDS published by the World Health Organization on the occasion of World AIDS Day, which is this year held under the motto "Share Rights and Responsibilities", said Dr. Zakula. This year's World AIDS Day is devoted to the obligation to respect, accept and share the rights and responsibilities regarding this disease. The topic "Share Rights and Responsibilities" was chosen with the intention of underscoring that the fundamental rights of people and their responsibility to prevent and suppress HIV are a composite part of this disease.

Therefore, the ability of an individual or a group to prevent an infection or deal with it also depends on the possibility they have to execute their rights and to assume responsibility for it.

From 1985 to 1995, 888 people infected by HIV were registered in Belgrade. Out of this total, 368 contracted AIDS and 293 of them died. Intravenous drug addicts account for 69.5% of the AIDS victims (see Table). The number of people who contracted the virus heterosexually has been steadily increasing: in 1989, they accounted for 3%, in 1994 for 10% and in 1995 for 13.7% of the people infected by HIV.

Intravenous drug addicts 69.5%

Heterosexual contact 13.7%

Homosexual contact 4.3%

Haemophiliacs 3.8%

Bisexuals 1.7%

Children of HIV positive mothers 1.1%

Contracted through transfusion 1.0%

Contracted through haemodialysis 0.3%

Unknown cause 4.6%

The Table shows the percentage of HIV-positive persons classified according to risk groups and in regard to the total number of HIV-infected people in Belgrade*****