On World AIDS day the spread of the disease came once again under scrutiny. The verdict? It’s coming back, or at least hanging on with sharp claws. According to reports released this month by UNAIDS, prevention fatigue seems to have set in and some countries, such as Uganda, that had seen the scourge decline for some years, are now seeing a resurgence of infection rates.
The disease is also making inroads in many parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, while in the West, “HIV prevention programs have often not been sustained and the number of new infections has remained the same,” states World Aids Campaign, an AIDS-fighting organization based in Amsterdam.
In Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North Africa, the highest risk groups – sex workers, drug users and male homosexuals – continue to be too ostracized by society to be adequately studied, supervised and supported.
But the region most devastated by the epidemic remains sub-Saharan Africa. “Life expectancy at birth is now just 47 years, which is 30 years less than most high-income countries,” said WHO Acting Director-General, Dr. Anders Nordstr
Comments are closed.