Global increase in HIV infection despite a decrease in some countries – UN report

Despite the fact that Kenya, Zimbabwe and some countries in the Caribbean region show declines in HIV infection rates due to behavioral changes, the number of people around the world living with HIV continues to rise past 40 million, its highest level ever, according to a United Nations report released today.

Despite the fact that Kenya, Zimbabwe and some countries in the Caribbean region show declines in HIV infection rates due to behavioural changes, the number of people around the world living with HIV continues to rise past 40 million, its highest level ever, according to a United Nations report released today.

The AIDS Epidemic Update 2005, the annual report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (

UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), stressed that increased, long-term HIV prevention and treatment efforts were needed to slow and reverse the epidemic.

“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 Peter 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.

Among other decreases, the report says that in Kenya adult prevalence rates dropped from a peak of 10 per cent in the late 1990s to seven per cent in 2003, HIV rates among pregnant women in Zimbabwe dropped from 26 per cent in 2003 to 21 per cent in 2004.

In those countries and in the Caribbean region (Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominican Republic and Haiti), it said there was evidence that the declines were caused by such behavioural changes as increased condom use among sex workers and expansion of voluntary HIV testing and counselling.

Despite those decreases, however, infection rates continued to increase in all regions except the Caribbean, with an additional five million new infections in 2005. The 40.3 million people living with HIV is up from an estimated 37.5 million in 2003.

More than three million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2005, the report says. Of these, more than 500,000 were children.

At the same time, HIV treatment has improved markedly over the past two years, with an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 deaths averted this year because of expanded access to HIV treatment.

The 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 Lee Jong-wook.

At a UN Headquarters press conference to introduce the report, Jim Kim, Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS Department, emphasized the need for integrated strategies in prevention itself, using all possible modes.

He said those modes include abstinence, especially for children, behavioural change when it is relevant, and condom use. Harm reduction – methadone and needle programmes to prevent transmission through intravenous drug use – should also be included.

“We’ll never really know for sure exactly what particular intervention led to a particular change in a person’s behaviour. And so what we recommend is that the full range of preventions and interventions must be utilized,” he said.

“Any time you take one or the other out of it for ideological or political reasons, you are really putting a country and individuals at risk,” he added.