http://health.aol.com/news/story/_a/hiv-epidemic-grows-to-395-million/n20061121053609990008?cid=474
AP
AIDS has claimed 2.9 million lives this year and another 4.3 million people became infected with HIV, according to the U.N.'s AIDS epidemic update report, published on Tuesday. Spread of the disease was most noticeable in East Asia, Eastern Europe and
AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since the first case was reported in 1981, making it one of the most destructive illnesses in history.
"In a short quarter of a century AIDS has drastically changed our world," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a staff meeting Monday in
But he said improvement in treatment, more resources and higher political commitment over the past 10 years gave rise to optimism.
The joint report by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization acknowledged that access to HIV/AIDS treatment has made a great leap forward in recent years, enabling many infected people to live longer. But it said much remained to be done, especially in prevention.
Sub-Saharan Africa - with 63 percent or 24.7 million of the world's infected people - bears the highest burden, but in East Asia, Eastern Europe and
The virus spread fastest in Eastern Europe and
All regions of the world have had an increase in the number of people living with the deadly virus over the past two years, the report said. In some countries this was due to better access to medicine keeping people alive longer.
Never before have so many women been infected with HIV. There are 17.7 million women worldwide carrying the virus, an increase of more than 1 million compared with two years earlier. The proportion of women among the infected is particularly striking in sub-Saharan
The report doesn't break down the estimates country by country, but it said the
Unprotected sex in prostitution and between men, as well as unsafe drug injecting represent the highest risks for HIV infection and the main reasons for the spread of the disease in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, it said.
After sub-Saharan Africa,
In
In the
But infected people in the
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11/21/06 05:32 EST
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