Submitted by admin on Tue, 2005-11-22 09:01. ::
Despite declines in HIV prevalence in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS is keeping Africa in a "death grip," AFP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the report, the epidemic appears to be worsening in Mozambique and Swaziland, and HIV prevalence among pregnant women is 20% or higher in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe (AFP/Yahoo! News [2], 11/21). Although 21% of pregnant women in Zimbabwe were HIV-positive in 2004, the prevalence rate for the group has decreased from 35% in 1999 (AP/Las Vegas Sun, 11/21). About two-thirds of all people estimated to be living with HIV reside in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report (BBC News, 11/21). In the Caribbean, Piot said declines in prevalence have occurred in Barbados, the Bahamas and Bermuda (AP/Las Vegas Sun, 11/21).
Many Eastern European and former Soviet Union nations this year experienced a "spike" in the number of estimated HIV cases, Reuters reports (Zaheer, Reuters, 11/21). The number of HIV-positive people living in Eastern Europe and Central Asia increased 25% over the last year to 1.6 million (UNAIDS/WHO release, 11/21). According to the report, Russia has "the biggest AIDS epidemic in all of Europe," fueled primarily by a large number of injection drug users (AFP/Yahoo! News [3], 11/21). Western Europe accounted for more than 500,000 new HIV cases in 2005, with the "biggest change" in many countries being the emergence of heterosexual contact as the primary transmission route (AFP/Yahoo! News [4], 11/21).
China has made "slow progress" in fulfilling a 2003 plan to provide universal access to antiretroviral drugs; Myanmar's "limited prevention efforts" have allowed HIV to spread unchecked; and Indonesia and Pakistan are on the verge of major epidemics, according to the report, AFX/Forbes reports. Although Asia's HIV prevalence rate remained at a "relatively low" 0.4%, the region accounts for about 20% of the number of HIV cases worldwide, or about 8.3 million. Indonesia's epidemic is attributed primarily to injection drug use, while limited knowledge about the disease among IDUs and commercial sex workers in Pakistan could be facilitating the spread of the virus in that country, the report said (AFX/Forbes [1], 11/21). Piot said that India -- where about 5.1 million HIV-positive people live, the second-highest number of any country in the world -- has experienced far more new HIV cases than the 28,000 cases the government reported in 2004. "There are a number of states where reporting of cases is weak," Piot said (Zaheer, Reuters , 11/20). The report called Thailand the only "success story" in Asia, with an HIV prevalence rate of about 1.5% in 2003, AFX/Forbes reports. However, the report noted that only 51% of commercial sex workers in the country use condoms, according to AFX/Forbes (AFX/Forbes [1], 11/21).
An estimated 510,000 HIV-positive people are living in the Middle East, with approximately 67,000 new cases each year. The report said that Sudan is "[b]y far the worst-affected country in the region," adding that many residents have a lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS (AFP/Yahoo! News [5], 11/21). The report also said that Western Europe and North America "remain the only regions in the world where most people in need of antiretroviral treatment are able to receive it" (AFP/Yahoo! News [4], 11/21). WHO Director-General Jong-Wook Lee said, "We can now see the clear benefit of scaling up HIV treatment and prevention together and not as isolated interventions," adding, "Effective prevention can also help reduce the number of individuals who will ultimately require care, making broad access to treatment more achievable and sustainable" (AFX/Forbes [2], 11/21).
"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org . You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy . The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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