Associated Press
GENEVA —
More than 36 million people worldwide will be infected with HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS, by the end of this year, including
an estimated 5.3 million new cases, the World Health Organization
said Friday.
THE BIGGEST
impact of the disease was in Africa again, according to figures
released by the U.N. health agency. Globally it estimates that
3 million people will die from AIDS in 2000, 80 percent of them
in Africa. Last year, 2.6 million people died of AIDS.
“Although
only about one-tenth of the world population lives there, sub-Saharan
Africa remains the hardest-hit region, accounting for 72 percent
of the people infected with HIV during 2000,” said a report
in WHO’s Epidemiological Record.
The number
of new infections in the world has decreased slightly from the
5.6 million new cases recorded in 1999, but the number who died
or developed full-blown AIDS has increased, WHO said.
It said the
new infections this year include 600,000 children under the age
of 15. The estimates by WHO and UNAIDS were in a weekly WHO report
released ahead of a major study on the disease next week.
“Many
African countries are experiencing the full impact of the epidemic,
including its economic and demographic consequences,” the
report said.
It added that
the number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa appeared to have stabilized
for the first time, with 3.8 million estimated new infections,
compared with 4 million last year.
WHO estimates
there are 5.8 million people living with HIV or AIDS in south
and southeast Asia, and 1.4 million in Latin America. But the
largest percentage increase is in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
where 250,000 new infections are estimated this year, taking the
total for the region to 700,000.
Estimated
new infections in North America total 45,000 and in Western Europe
30,000.
“By
the end of 2000, it is estimated that a total of 21.8 million
adults and children will have died because of HIV/AIDS since the
beginning of the epidemic,” WHO said.
“Mortality
due to HIV continued to increase, with an estimated 3 million
deaths during 2000. Deaths in women also continue to increase,
accounting for an estimated 52 percent of adult deaths due to
HIV in 2000.”
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