|
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.”
|
