GRM NEWS
A new UN report details that the number of people living with HIV is at its highest yet.
Information from the BBC, 21 November 2005.
UNAIDS says there are an estimated 40.3 million people currently living with the virus across the world, with almost 5 million infected in 2005. And it warns there are growing epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central and East Asia.
But the report says falls in HIV incidence have been seen in certain groups, including sex workers and their clients in Thailand and Cambodia.
Other groups in which education and prevention efforts have helped reduce HIV infection rates are young people in Uganda, injecting drug users in Spain and Brazil and men who have sex with men, across Western countries.
Overall, the report says more than 3 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2005. Of these, more than 500,000 were children.
The report says Sub-Saharan Africa is still hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. Two thirds of the people living with HIV, 25.8 million, are in this area. In 2005, 2.4 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa died of an HIV-related illness and a further 3.2 million were infected with the virus.
Resolve
The report says access to antiretroviral treatments for HIV have improved dramatically, with many more people across the world able to access the drugs.
It says: "It is no longer only in the wealthy countries of North America and Western Europe that persons in need of treatment have a reasonable chance of receiving it. Treatment coverage in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Cuba now exceeds 80%."
But UNAIDS says the situation is still difficult for people in the poorest countries of the world. "At best, one in 10 Africans and one in seven Asians in need of anti-retroviral treatment were receiving it in mid-2005.
Dr Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, said: "The reality is that the AIDS epidemic continues to outstrip global and national efforts to contain it.
"It is clear that a rapid increase in the scale and scope of HIV prevention programmes is urgently needed. "We must move from small projects with short-term horizons to long-term, comprehensive strategies."
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