Global number of people living with HIV continues to rise: UNAIDS/WHO

[Guest guest]

UNAIDS/WHO press release

HIV infection rates decreasing in several countries but global

number of people living with HIV continues to rise

Increased HIV prevention and treatment efforts needed to slow and

reverse AIDS epidemic, according to new UNAIDS/WHO report

GENEVA, 21 NOVEMBER 2005 -- There is new evidence that adult HIV

infection rates have decreased in certain countries and that changes

in behaviour to prevent infection—such as increased use of condoms,

delay of first sexual experience and fewer sexual partners—have

played a key part in these declines. The new UN report also

indicates, however, that overall trends in HIV transmission are

still increasing, and that far greater HIV prevention efforts are

needed to slow the epidemic.

Kenya, Zimbabwe and some countries in the Caribbean region all show

declines in HIV prevalence over the past few years with overall

adult infection rates decreasing in Kenya from a peak of 10% in the

late 1990s to 7% in 2003 and evidence of drops in HIV rates among

pregnant women in Zimbabwe from 26% in 2003 to 21% in 2004. In urban

areas of Burkina Faso prevalence among young pregnant women declined

from around 4% in 2001 to just under 2% in 2003.

These latest findings were published in AIDS Epidemic Update 2005,

the annual report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

(UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The joint report,

which this year focuses on HIV prevention, was released today in

advance of World AIDS Day, marked worldwide on the first of December.

Several recent developments in the Caribbean region (in Bahamas,

Barbados, Bermuda, Dominican Republic and Haiti) give cause for

guarded optimism—with some HIV prevalence declines evident among

pregnant women, signs of increased condom use among sex workers and

expansion of voluntary HIV testing and counselling.

Despite decreases in the rate of infection in certain countries, the

overall number of people living with HIV has continued to increase

in all regions of the world except the Caribbean. There were an

additional five million new infections in 2005. The number of people

living with HIV globally has reached its highest level with an

estimated 40.3 million people, up from an estimated 37.5 million in

2003. More than three million people died of AIDS-related illnesses

in 2005; of these, more than 500000 were children.

According to the report, the steepest increases in HIV infections

have occurred in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (25% increase to

1.6 million) and East Asia. But sub-Saharan Africa continues to be

the most affected globally– with 64% of new infections occurring

here (over three million people).

" We are encouraged by the gains that have been made in some

countries and by the fact that sustained HIV prevention programmes

have played a key part in bringing down infections. But the reality

is that the AIDS epidemic continues to outstrip global and national

efforts to contain it, " said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr

Piot. " 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, " he added.

IMPACT OF TREATMENT

The report recognizes that access to HIV treatment has improved

markedly over the past two years. More than one million people in

low-and middle-income countries are now living longer and better

lives because they are on antiretroviral treatment and an estimated

250 000 to 350 000 deaths were averted this year because of expanded

access to HIV treatment.

Commenting on the potential enhanced impact of integrating

prevention and treatment, the 2005 report emphasizes that a

comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS requires the simultaneous

acceleration of treatment and prevention efforts with the ultimate

goal of universal access to prevention, treatment and care.

" We can now see the clear benefit of scaling up HIV treatment and

prevention together and not as isolated interventions, " said WHO

Director-General Dr LEE Jong-wook. " Treatment availability provides

a powerful incentive for governments to support, and individuals to

seek out, HIV prevention information and voluntary counselling and

testing. Effective prevention can also help reduce the number of

individuals who will ultimately require care, making broad access to

treatment more achievable and sustainable. "

FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR STRENGTHENING HIV PREVENTION

New data show that in Latin America, Eastern Europe and particularly

Asia, the combination of injecting drug use and sex work is fuelling

epidemics, and prevention programmes are falling short of addressing

this overlap. The report shows how sustained, intensive programmes

in diverse settings have helped bring about decreases in HIV

incidence—among young people in Uganda and Tanzania, among sex

workers and their clients in Thailand and India, and among injecting

drug users in Spain and Brazil.

The report notes that, without HIV prevention measures, about 35% of

children born to HIV-positive women will contract the virus. While

mother-to-child transmission has been virtually eliminated from

industrialized countries and service coverage is improving in many

other places, it still falls far short in most of sub-Saharan

Africa. An accelerated scale-up of services is urgently needed to

reduce this unacceptable toll.

Levels of knowledge of safe sex and HIV remain low in many

countries – even in countries with high and growing prevalence. In

24 sub-Saharan countries (including Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya,

Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda), two-thirds or more of young women

(aged 15-24 years) lacked comprehensive knowledge of HIV

transmission. According to a major survey carried out in the

Philippines in 2003, more than 90% of respondents still believed

that HIV could be transmitted by sharing a meal with an HIV-positive

person.

Finally, weak HIV surveillance in several regions including in some

countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and

North Africa is hampering prevention efforts and often means that

people at highest risk – men who have sex with men, sex workers, and

injecting dug users – are not adequately covered or reached through

HIV prevention and treatment strategies.

The annual AIDS Epidemic Update reports on the latest developments

in the global AIDS epidemic. With maps and regional estimates, the

2005 edition provides the most recent estimates on the epidemic's

scope and human toll, explores new trends in the epidemic's

evolution, and features a special section on HIV prevention.

Note to editors: The UNAIDS/WHO report is being launched in 19

cities worldwide on 21 November 2005. The main launch is being held

in New Delhi, India.

For more information, please contact:

World Health Organization

Klomjit Chandrapanya, WHO, Geneva, (+41 22) 791 5589

WHO North American HIV/AIDS Media Line, (+1 212) 584 5031

UNAIDS Press office

Dominique de Santis,UNAIDS, Paris, (+41 79) 254 6803 (mobile)

Sophie Barton-Knott, UNAIDS, Geneva, (+41 22) 791 1697

Beth Magne-Watts, UNAIDS, Geneva, (+41 22)