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UNAIDS report unveils latest global HIV/AIDS epidemic trends
United Nations Press Release. 06 July 2004.
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UNAIDS warned that the number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has risen in every region of the world and last year five million people became newly infected with HIV - more people than any previous year.
These findings are contained in the 2004 UNAIDS Report of the global AIDS epidemic, released today in advance of the XV International AIDS Conference, to be held in Bangkok from 11-16 July 2004. The new report represents the most accurate picture of AIDS to date due to the more comprehensive country surveillance data and improved methods for estimating HIV rates.
?“Despite increased funding, political commitment and progress in expanding access to HIV treatment over the past two years, the AIDS epidemic continues to outpace the global response, ?“ said Dr Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, at the press launch of the report. Since the 2002 AIDS Conference in Barcelona, more than nine million people have become infected and six million have died of AIDS. ?“These numbers demonstrate the enormity of the challenge in both preventing millions of infections and treating those living with HIV,?” added Dr Piot. ?“Until we recognize AIDS as the development and security issue of our time, we will not succeed in beating the epidemic.?”
The number of people living with HIV continues to grow ?– from 35 million in 2001 to 38 million in 2003. The 2004 UNAIDS report highlights the latest global trends and, for the first time, features revised HIV prevalence rates for previous years, allowing for a better understanding of how the epidemic is spreading.
For the first time, the report compares new estimates for 2003 with revised estimates for 2001 based on improved methodologies. This is the best way we know how to obtain a more accurate picture of the AIDS epidemic. Although the new global estimates are slightly lower than the previously published estimates, the actual number of people living with HIV has not decreased; rather the epidemic continues to grow based on revised 2001 estimates.
?“There is no time to misread the signals, with Asia facing life and death choices in preventing a full-blown AIDS catastrophe in the region,?” said Dr Piot. ?“Equally alarming, infections in Africa continue to increase and people are dying in large numbers.?”
Trends in the Global Epidemic:
- 1.1 million people in Asia became infected with HIV last year alone ?– more than any previous year. The epidemic is expanding rapidly in this region, with sharp increases in HIV infections in China, Indonesia and Viet Nam. With 60% of the world?’s population, Asia?’s fast-growing epidemic has global implications.
- India, with an estimated 5.1 million people living with HIV, is home to one in seven HIV-positive people worldwide. This represents the largest number of people infected outside of South Africa.
- An estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. There appears to be stabilization in HIV prevalence rates; but this is actually due to a rise in AIDS deaths and a continued increase in new infections.
- In Latin America, some 1.6 million people are living with HIV and the epidemic tends to be concentrated mainly among populations at increased risk of HIV exposure, such as injecting drug users and men who have sex with men. Low national prevalence is disguising some serious epidemics. For example, in Brazil -- the region?’s most populous country, and home to more than one in four people living with HIV ?– national prevalence is well below 1%. However, in some cities, infection levels above 60% were reported among injecting drug users.
- Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to have expanding epidemics. Some 1.3 million people are living with HIV. Russia, with over three million injecting drug users, remains one of the worst-affected countries in the region. But women account for an increasing share of newly diagnosed cases of HIV -- up from one-in-four in 2001 to just one-in-three one year later. The epidemic?’s most striking feature is the age of those infected ?– more than 80% are under 30. Condom use is generally low among this group. By contrast, in North America and Western Europe, only 30% of infected people are under 30.
- In addition, the report finds that infections are also on the rise in the United States and Western Europe. In the US, an estimated 950,000 people are living with HIV, up from 900,000 in 2001. Half of all new infections in recent years have been among African Americans. In Western Europe, 580,000 people are living with HIV compared to 540,000 in 2001.
The full press release and report can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page
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