| Global AIDS Epidemic Continues to Grow | | By Lisa Schlein
| |
Theglobal AIDS epidemic continues to grow leaving about 39.5 million peopleworldwide infected with the virus. The report by UNAIDS and the World HealthOrganization also shows that some countries that had been making progress inkeeping the epidemic in check are backsliding.
Latest data shows an estimated39.5 million people around the world are living with HIV, the virus that causesAIDS. According to the report, this means every eight seconds somebody in theworld is infected with HIV, resulting in 11,000 people becoming newly infectedevery day.
The executive director of UNAIDS,Peter Piot, says most of the new infections, nearly two-thirds, are inSub-Saharan Africa. But, the biggest increases are in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where infection rates have risen by morethan 50 percent since 2004. He says 2.9 million people died fromAIDS-related illnesses this year, the highest number ever.
"So, what is new is that inthe report besides this continuing progress of the epidemic is, as I said, thatin some countries that were examples for the fight against AIDS that we see anincrease in new infections," said Piot. "We see that in Uganda. We seethat to a certain extent in Thailand, across Western Europe, the United Statesand this really has to make us think how to sustain a response to AIDS in thelong term because the AIDS epidemic will not be finished in a couple of yearsfrom now."
UNAIDS senior epidemiologist,Karen Stanecki, says infections are rising in countries where HIV preventionprograms have not been sustained or have not adapted to the changing nature ofthe epidemics.
"In Uganda wherelatest national behavioral data shows erratic condom use and rising numbers ofmen who have sex with more than one sexual partner, there are signs of HIVprevalence rising again in some rural areas," noted Stanecki. "InThailand,one of our past success stories, a large percentage of new HIV infections areoccurring in people considered to be low risk. One third of new infections areamong married women."
The report notes some positivetrends in young peoples' sexual behaviors. It says data shows increased use ofcondoms, delay of sexual debut and fewer partners. This has resulted indeclines in HIV prevalence among young people between 2000 and 2005 in a number of African countries,including Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, the report notesyoung people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounts for 40 percent of new HIVinfections. It finds the overlap of high risk behavior, such as injecting druguse, unprotected paid sex and men who have sex with men, is a factor of concernin many regions of the world, especially in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The report notes the emergence ofinjecting drug use as a factor of HIV in Kenya,Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa is a recentdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa. | 
发表于 2006-12-31 09:56:06
发表于 2007-1-3 16:08:39
发表于 2007-1-3 17:14:23
签到领寄托币
GO
转发
