HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

A new report from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS indicates that incidence of the disease is falling rapidly in countries where AIDS awareness is high, but that AIDS still has a massive grip on the developing world. The UNAIDS report estimated that 30.6 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, with some 66 percent of that group living in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the report said that about 16,000 people contract HIV each day, but that only 10 percent are aware of their infection. Furthermore, almost 1.1 million children under the age of 15 are living with AIDS, the UN report said.

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Despite the high number of infections in Africa, some improvement has been seen there. Uganda, for example, has reported a decline in infections, particularly among its young people-- a sign that more young people are following safer sex practices than a decade ago. The United States and Europe, meanwhile, have also seen progress in the war against AIDS. UNAIDS head Peter Piot noted that the largest decline in the United States has been among homosexual men, "the very group which sought and benefited from the most open exchange of information about the risks of unprotected sex in the early years of the epidemic." In western Europe, experts expect to see 30 percent fewer new AIDS cases this year compared to 1995. However, the HIV rate in Russia-- where drug abuse is rampant and conservative attitudes toward sex education prevail-- is expected to skyrocket in the future unless AIDS awareness programs are improved.

Editor's Note: from The Christian Science Monitor