UN cuts estimate for global HIV infections

THE United Nations yesterday sharply reduced its estimate for the number of people worldwide infected with the AIDS virus, citing a significant reassessment of HIV prevalence in India.

Revised figures in the latest UNAIDS annual report slashed an estimate for total infections this time last year to 32.7 million from 39.5 million cases, the number given in the 2006 report.

“The single biggest reason for the reduction in global HIV prevalence figures in the past year was the recent revision in India after an intensive reassessment of the epidemic in that country,” UNAIDS said in its report.

Improvements in data collection also resulted in statistics being revised for Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, it added.

UNAIDS cautioned against comparing 2007 figures to those of last year in the light of the revisions. “Reliable public health data are the essential foundation for an effective response,” said Kevin De Cock, head of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation.

“We need to continue investing more in all countries and all aspects of strategic information relating to health,” he added.

The number of people worldwide infected with HIV in 2007 totalled 2.5 million people and 33.2 million are now living with the virus, the report said. More than two million people died from the incurable disease in 2007.

Children under of 15 make up 2.5 million of the total number of those living with the virus, 420,000 of new cases and 330,000 of all AIDS deaths.

Numbers of people living with the virus were levelling out and the percentage of the population affected was now in decline, the report said.

“Unquestionably, we are beginning to see a return on investment — new HIV infections and mortality are declining and the prevalence of HIV levelling,” said UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot.

“But with more than 6,800 new infections and more than 5,700 deaths each day due to AIDS we must expand our efforts in order to significantly reduce the impact of AIDS worldwide,” he added.

A total of 1.7 million new infections were recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of the global total, and AIDS remains the leading cause of death in the region.

About 22.5 million people living in Africa have HIV/AIDS, 68% of the global total. Sub-Saharan African countries are in the grip of a sustained epidemic among the general populations.

Elsewhere, the epidemic is concentrated in vulnerable groups such as homosexual men, sex workers and their partners, and injecting drug users.