UN sees downward trend in AIDS infections, deaths (Roundup)

Nov 23, 2010, 12:46 GMT

Geneva - The United Nations on Tuesday noted a decline in new HIV/AIDS infections and fewer deaths, but warned that the economic crisis could dampen hopes for further positive developments.

New infections worldwide declined by 19 per cent between 2004 and 2009, UNAIDS, the UN programme to combat the disease, said in its annual global report.

In 2009, 1.8 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses, down from the 2.1 million in 2004.

'We have halted and begun to reverse the epidemic,' Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, wrote in the foreword to the report.

Younger people were adopting safer sexual practices in the worst affected countries, helping to bring down the infection rate, the report said. Still, an estimated 2.6 million people were infected last year, a level comparable to that of the early 1990s.

Sub-Saharan Africa remained the hardest hit region, with 69 per cent of all new HIV infections, and young women there were more likely to contract the disease than young men.

Much of Africa - including historic epicentres of the disease like South Africa and Botswana - was however showing positive trends.

There were 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with significant declines of 25 per cent or more in their infection rates, out of 33 countries worldwide reporting such progress to the UN.

Parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia were meanwhile experiencing a worrying rise in infection rates, according to the report.

Intravenous drug use was likely behind the rise in the seven countries in those regions showing a more than 25 per cent increase in the rate of new infections.

Some 33.3 million people are estimated to be living with the HIV virus, which is most commonly transmitted during sex.

Most live in Africa, where the spread of the virus has been driven mainly by the reluctance of men to wear condoms.

Only about a third of the 15 million people with HIV in the poorer parts of the world receive proper medical care, the report said.

Meanwhile, investment in the AIDS response flattened last year for the first time ever, against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.

The report's authors warned that discrimination against HIV- positive people was still rife and risked driving patients underground and preventing them accessing life-saving treatment.

More than 80 countries across the world have laws against same-sex behaviour, and 51 restrict the travel of people living with HIV.

AIDS infections worldwide peaked in 1999. The epidemic is now in its fourth decade.

Read more about AIDS

Read more about UN

Read more about World Health