African disaster. More than 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are suspected of being infected with HIV.
The number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa may have stabilized, according to new figures released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World health Organization (WHO). At the end of this year, there will be about 3.8 million new infections, down from 4 million in 1999, according to the report. But the extent of the disease is still alarming; worldwide, the number of people living with HIV or AIDS has increased to 36.1 million, more than 50% higher than the WHO predicted in 1991.
UNAIDS attributes the slight decrease Sub-Saharan Africa to prevention programs in countries such as Uganda, and the fact that infection rates are already so high that relatively few people in vulnerable groups are left to infect. The decline of the infection "is not bad news, but it is certainly not good news," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. The facts are that dark last year, 2.4 million people died of AIDS in the region, while the number of people living with the disease has risen to 25.3 million.
Meanwhile, the number of new HIV infections jumped 67% in the Eastern Europe the figures are particularly grim in Russia, where 50,000 new HIV infections were recorded in 00. - more than in all previous years ". it just exploded, "said Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York City. The number of people with AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is now 700,000, against 920,000 in the US
The increase in HIV infections in Eastern Europe is mainly among injecting drug users -. For the time being. The problem, says Berkley, is that once HIV spreads to the rest of the population, it quickly becomes a generalized epidemic.
Related Sites
The UNAIDS / WHO report
HIV research at NIAID
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
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