HIV in Japan

The Japan Times Online

The editorial from the Japan Times above contains a few surprises:

Last year the total number of those infected with HIV in Japan hit a record 6,560 (of which 4,673 were Japanese nationals), following an unprecedented 1,165 (of which 698 were Japanese) new infections reported in 2004, the most recent data available.

Notice how seemingly important it is for this article to distinguish between foreigners and Japanese with HIV? Japanese suspicions of foreigners being more disease ridden than "pure" Japanese is confirmed again.

Anyway, the rate of new infections in Japan in 2004 is not too bad for its population. Australia had 818 new HIV diagnoses and 239 AIDS diagnoses in the same year, but with about one sixth of the population. The total Australian HIV cases seems to be about 20,000.

By the way, from that Australian link, notice how the HIV diagnoses rate has jumped around for the last 10 years? Quite a big leap from 2000 to 2001 (I wonder what the reason for that blip could be), but basically there is quite an intractable rate of a minimum of around 650 each and every year. Far too many still for what is an entirely preventable disease, hey.

Anyway, back to Japan:

The term "sexual intercourse" has reportedly been banned in classrooms through repeated directives issued by the education ministry. And yet, educational authorities appear blinded to the fact that, in today's Japan, children grow up in an environment awash with distorted images of sex in manga, in magazines, on the Internet and on television, all of which make some young people overly interested in sex.

The first sentence is a little surprising. The second is somewhat true, although I would not say that on television there seems to have much emphasis on sex.

Then the editorial has this:

On a positive note, professor Montagnier maintains that a strong immunity resulting from a healthy lifestyle minimizes the HIV infection risk as the virus is not highly contagious, unlike other sexually transmitted diseases. This is why the poor -- who often have low immunity resulting from under-nourishment -- are the most vulnerable. The unhealthy eating habits of today's youths could also put them at a greater risk."

Maybe eating McDonalds leaves you more open to catching HIV?

Sounds like a highly questionable thing to be saying in an article criticising HIV education.