HIV infections down in sub-Saharan Africa, up worldwide

Highest number of AIDS deaths ever

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the first time ever, some parts of Africa are seeing a decrease in new HIV cases.

The decrease in sub-Saharan Africa comes despite an increase in the number of new HIV cases worldwide, a new U.N. report states.

According to UNAIDS, the U.N. program that studies the global AIDS epidemic, about 5.3 million people were infected with HIV worldwide in 2000. An estimated 3.8 million of those were in sub-Saharan Africa, which is down from the 4 million who were infected there in 1999, the report said.

This is the first time Africa has had a decrease in new infections and is probably a result of two factors, according to the annual report, released Monday.

First, the epidemic has gone on for so long that it has already affected many people in the sexually active population. Second, prevention programs in some Eastern African countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania are now paying off, reducing new infections.

Not necessarily good news

UNAIDS Director Dr. Peter Piot said the news on Africa is not necessarily a good sign because a stabilized HIV report could mean almost as many people are dying of AIDS as are being newly infected. In 2000, 2.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa died of AIDS.

Worldwide an estimated 3 million people died of AIDS in 2000; the highest number of AIDS deaths ever, the report said. The disease is expected to kill at an increasing rate in the years to come as new cases are combined with people already infected.

Even as new infections among adults are decreasing, new infections among children are increasing.

Piot said many of these child cases are in sub-Saharan Africa where infected mothers are transmitting the virus to their babies during delivery.

Eastern Europe sees 'explosion' of cases

Eastern Europe has seen the biggest explosion of new infections. The region has gone from 420,000 new infections in 1999 to 700,000 in 2000. In Russia alone, the rate of new infections has more than doubled this year from 130,0000 to 300,000, Piot said. Most of the cases in Russia are among intravenous drug users.

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South and Southeast Asia are other hot spots with 5.8-million adults and children in the two regions now living with HIV or AIDS.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, about 21.8 million have died of AIDS worldwide, making it the leading cause of death in Africa and the number one cause of death by infectious disease globally.

The disease is having a huge economic impact on the countries that are hardest hit. In South Africa, for example, the epidemic is projected to reduce the economic growth rate enough that by the year 2010 the gross domestic product will be 17 percent lower than it would have been without AIDS -- wiping the equivalent of $22 billion off the country's economy.

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide is now 36.1 million, up from 33.6 million in 1999, and more than 50-percent higher than the World Health Organization projected in 1991. Of those infected, 1.4 million are children.

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UNAIDS The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS
World Health Organization

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