Posted on 11/21/2005 7:05:14 AM PST by Abathar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Almost 5 million people were infected by HIV globally in 2005, the highest jump since the first reported case in 1981 and taking the number living with the virus to a record 40.3 million, the United Nations said on Monday.
The 4.9 million new infections were fueled by the epidemic's continuing rampage in sub-Saharan Africa and a spike in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the UNAIDS body said in its annual report.
"Despite progress made in a small but growing number of countries, the AIDS epidemic continues to outstrip global efforts to contain it," the report said.
More than 3.1 million people have died this year from AIDS, including 570,000 children -- far more than the toll from all natural disasters since last December's tsunami.
Southern Africa, including South Africa -- which has the world's most cases at more than 5.1 million -- continues to be worst-hit.
Saying nine out of 10 people in developing countries do not know their HIV status, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot called for an unprecedented response to the global AIDS crisis.
"A business-as-usual approach will not do," he told a news conference in New Delhi. India, with about 5 million HIV sufferers, has the second-highest number of cases after South Africa and there are concerns many cases are unreported.
Focusing on South Africa where the infection rate among pregnant women touched 29.5 percent in 2005, the report said deaths of people aged between 25 and 44 had more than doubled.
Other southern Africa countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland had high rates of HIV among pregnant women -- more than 30 percent -- and sign of growth rates stabilizing.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 25.8 million HIV-positive people, or 64 percent of the world's total.
MONOGAMOUS WOMEN AT RISK
In Asia, a total of 1.2 million new cases since 2003 pushed total cases to 8.3 million, with conditions in countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan ripe for a rapid spread.
UNAIDS said the number of HIV-positive women reached 17.5 million this year, more than one million more than in 2003.
"In many countries, marriage, and women's own fidelity are not enough to protect them against HIV infection," the report said, adding in India many new infections were being reported in married women infected by their husbands after visiting sex workers.
In Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Russian federation, infections due to unprotected sex are rising after the initial momentum given to the epidemic by injecting drug use.
The report said a total of 1.6 million were living with HIV in 2005 in the region, up from 1.3 million in 2003 and AIDS deaths soared to 62,000 in 2005 from 36,000 in 2003.
Piot slammed the response in a region which has seen the number of infections rise 20-fold in a decade.
"The responses has been fragile and insufficient," he said.
But he added leaders across the world were far more aware of the crisis and spending to combat AIDS had touched $8 billion this year compared with $250 million in 1996.
"SMELL THE COFFEE"
"UNAIDS and governments should wake up and smell and the coffee," Anjali Gopalan, executive director of the Naaz Foundation, a leading Indian HIV group, said.
"If there is so much money, why can't we combat the disease? Why is there such a desperate situation? UNAIDS and governments must be made more accountable about where the money is going."
The outlook on accessibility of anti-retroviral drugs for people in developing nations is looking brighter, the U.N. said.
"Because of recent treatment scale-up since the end of 2003, between 250,000 and 350,000 deaths were averted in 2005."
But it added too many HIV-positive people were missing out, with just one in 10 Africans and one in seven Asians who need anti-retroviral treatment actually receiving it.
Two decades into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the report said that in many parts of the world, including southern Africa and South Asia, knowledge about HIV transmission was alarmingly low.
The outgoing chief of India's official National Aids Control Organization, S.Y. Quraishi, said 70 percent of Indian sex workers either did not know what a condom was or how to use one.
"If the situation remains unchanged, India could have an estimated 50 million HIV cases by 2025," he said.
In other words - "We need Money to make all of this go away, its our fault this is spreading because we won't fund the UN properly."
I can smell the coffee just fine thanks, and it stinks of corruption and liberal stupidity.
Heck, even if you made it "Thou shall not commit adultery without a condom." and they still would deny it would happen to them.
Time to close their butts.
If you examine the statistics which the Population Research Institute and a few others have done over the years, you will find that wherever the UN goes in with its condoms, abortionists, and sex-ed, AIDS rates skyrocket.
Condoms are not even reliable at preventing pregancies, and they are far less reliable at preventing AIDS. At best they give a false sense security but are no more reliable than some African witch doctor at preventing the disease.
This is like throwing money at public education. The more money you throw in, the more you feed the greedy bureaucracy, the more vultures and buzzards you draw into the process, and the less you actually accomplish.
Here's an excellent factual article on "Family Values vs. Safe Sex" at PRI (Population Research Institute, not Public Radio International):
http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?EID=557
Yes, yes, yes. Let us never forget Africa where the definition of AIDS is different than here and where no HIV screening is necessary in order to classify a case as AIDS.
Interesting that a mostly mulsim nation is high on the list...drug use? Lots of Prostitution? 4 wives to be infected by one husband...?
In Thailand and in the Philippines the first HIV/AIDS cases were reported in 1984; by 1987, Thailand had 112 cases, while the Philippines had more, with 135 cases. Today, in the year 2003, there are around 750,000 cases in Thailand, where the 100% Condom Use Program had relatively great success. On the other hand, there are only 1,935 cases in the Philippines31--and this, considering that the Philippines' population is around 30% greater than Thailand's! Relatively low rates of condom use by the people in general, and staunch opposition from the Church and a good number of government leaders against the condom program and sexual promiscuity, are well-known facts in the Philippines.
Dontcha love it when they insist that AIDS is a problem because the rich countries aren't doing anything about it? Seldom is the responsibility of the poor countries in the AIDS crisis mentioned.
Absolutely right BlueYonder. Under the Bangui definition used across Africa you just have to have a bad cough and look a bit thin (seriously!) to be diagnosed as having AIDs
But also let's not forget the ELISA tests. These are performed upon thousands of Africans at ante-natal clinics. The ELISA test are known to give false positives on black people, and false positives on pregnant women - both conditions not unknown in African ante-natal clinics. Despite their appalling non-specificity, and continued non-calibration against viral isolate, these tests have formed the backbone of the UN's computer-based epidemiological predictions for decades.
Even those Freepers who still believe in the HIV virus should be a little concerned about the slim reeds used to justify the spending of their tax dollars prescribing poisonous drugs and condoms to people with TB.
Well, perhaps that comparison isn't fair... Thailand after all IS the sex trade capital of the world, whereas the Phillipines is a very religious, mostly Catholic country.
Oh, wait, then again: that IS the point, isn't it?
>> Even those Freepers who still believe in the HIV virus should be a little concerned about the slim reeds <<
SLIM reads?
(AIDS is called SLIM in Africa. Part of why the diet pill SLIM-AIDS didn't go over too well.)
In sub saharan Africa, every person you "save" from AIDS is probably just one more you can add to the starvation roll.
Yes, this is true in Africa. Having one of at least a dozen diseases qualifies you as an AIDS victim, because these diseases are officially side-effects of AIDS. Usually they lack the means to perform tests for HIV.
Good point. It's intriguing that - under the Bangui definition - the typical symptoms for (for instance) tuberculosis – fever, weight loss and coughing – are officially considered to be AIDs, and not TB. It's a uniquely modern miracle, like the equally wondrous theory of Global Warming. The putative HIV virus may be ravaging Africa but hey! it's curing TB!
Many of the first AIDS victims died of Sarcosi's Syndrome, a form of cancer, so they decided that if you died of Sarcosi's Syndrome, you probably had AIDS. Since AIDS compromises the immune system, it's common for AIDS victims to die prematurely of some other disease.
Then they started adding other diseases to the list. Pretty soon, anybody in Africa who died of any disease was likely to be listed as an AIDS victim. Why not? Possibly they were, and the more AIDS victims, the more AIDS funding.
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