40m victims of AIDS scourge
More people are dying from the disease than ever before, with 3.1 million AIDS-related deaths in the past year.
The latest global update from UNAids shows that southern Africa is at the epicentre of the AIDS disaster. With millions killed by AIDS, and millions more left ill, whole communities have been left defenceless when drought arrives.
In some countries the AIDS toll is contributing to the impact of famine.
Southern Africa is home to almost 30m people living with the infection, with approximately 3.5m new infections last year.
An estimated 8.8% of the adult population in sub-Saharan Africa has the virus.
But the report, entitled AIDS Epidemic Update 2002, says that worse is yet to come in Africa. It was released ahead of World AIDS Day on Sunday.
The report states: "In four southern African countries, national adult HIV prevalence has risen higher than thought possible.
"The food crises faced in three of these are linked to the toll of their longstanding HIV/Aids epidemics, especially on the lives of young, productive adults."
In his World AIDS Day message Dr Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said: "In Africa, AIDS has had a catastrophic effect on food security.
"With millions killed by AIDS , and millions more left ill, whole communities have been left defenceless when drought arrives."
Globally, 5m people were newly infected with the virus in the past year, according to estimates. Almost a million of these were children under the age of 15.
Concern continues to grow about the spread of the virus in east and south Asia, particularly in India and China, the latter of which has more than one million people each with HIV or AIDS .
Across the whole of east, south and south-east Asia, there were almost another million new infections during 2002, say experts.
Statisticians have warned the epidemic is very much "in its infancy" in these regions.
Although the scale of the epidemic is far smaller in developed regions such as Europe and North America, a vast outbreak among injecting drug users in Eastern Europe and central Asia is under way.
HIV is spreading from these people into the wider population.
However, among the growing tally of HIV infections, there have been some success stories - in Brazil, for example, where prevention programmes have had a massive impact, and in African countries such as Ethiopia and South Africa.
Dr Piot said: "The World AIDS Campaign for 2002-2003 is all about stigma and discrimination tackle them and we are well on the road to winning the fight against AIDS ."
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organisation, called for urgent government action.
"This is a critical moment of opportunity and danger. Unless we see national prevention initiatives championed by the highest level of government, the growth in infections can be unstoppable. We are this critical moment today in a number of countries in Eastern Europe, central, south and eastern Asia."
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