Friday, December 1st is annual World AIDS Day. For more than 30 years, institutions around the world have been raising awareness of the issue through campaigns. In Mönchengladbach, the local AIDS charity provided information about the disease at a stand in Minto.
Right next to them, visitors to the shopping center were able to demonstrate their craftsmanship. The Düsseldorf Mode Design College had red hats and scarves that could be embroidered and decorated with beads and pompoms. The symbol for AIDS and HIV infections is the red ribbon. A donation of five euros was due for the hat and scarf, which will go to the Aids-Hilfe MG. “In fact, most of them gave significantly more,” said Lena Weber and Jonas Braun from the college. Like the AIDS aid stand, the college’s craft benches were well attended. On that day, Minto provided “Do it with Minto” condoms, which were distributed by the AIDS charity.
Nikolaus Schneider, Paula Weinsheimer and Robert Lierz from Aids-Hilfe organized a photo campaign so that visitors to the stand could show their solidarity with those affected. Everyone could have their photo taken, received a photo as a gift, and another print ended up on a photo wall.
“Although the disease has been around for a long time and has been extensively explained, those affected are still discriminated against, at school, at work, in doctors’ offices,” said Nikolaus Schneider. After an AIDS patient leaves a practice, the rooms are often disinfected. The disease is not contagious as long as the person affected is on medication.
In Mönchengladbach, three people died as a result of an HIV infection in 2012. This corresponds to 1.2 people per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2020 there were two people who died from HIV (0.8), a year later fortunately none, but in 2022 there were again three people who died as a result of an HIV infection (1.1). There is no information as to whether those who died were women or men. The average age at death is also not known.
Detailed data is available from the State Statistical Office (IT.NRW): In 2022, 60 people died in North Rhine-Westphalia as a result of an HIV infection, 50 of them were men. This means that the number of HIV-related deaths has increased by seven people or around 13 percent compared to 2021. However, it was 48 people or more than 44 percent lower than ten years earlier. In 2012, 108 people died of HIV. The average age at death of all those who died in North Rhine-Westphalia as a result of an HIV infection was 56.4 years in 2022 (men 56.1, women 57.9 years). Ten years previously it was 50.1 years (men 50.8 years, women 47.2 years).