Africa tops AIDS list with Asia set to overtake

Africa tops AIDS list with Asia set to overtake

NAIROBI (Reuter): Nearly 13 million men and women in sub-
Saharan Africa have the killer disease AIDS, a UN agency said
yesterday.

Africa is the continent most highly affected by AIDS but Asia
is set to overtake it, the agency said.

UNAIDS, in a briefing to Kenyan government officials and heads
of UN agencies, said sub-Saharan Africa had more than 12.9
million adults infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS).

"Currently, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected area.
Heterosexual transmission had predominated since the outset and
currently the number of women infected outnumbers men by 6 to 5,"
a UNAIDS report said.

In North Africa and the Middle East, UNAIDS estimates that
over 180,000 people were living with AIDS or Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes it.

The report said some 7,500 people around the world -- nearly
half of them women -- are newly infected daily with HIV.

"As of end 1995, UNAIDS estimated that some 20.1 million
adults are living with HIV/AIDS including over 11 million males
and almost nine million females," it said.

It said heterosexual transmission accounted for more than 75
percent of all HIV infections world-wide.

The spread of AIDS in Africa had been spurred by population
movements mainly due to situations of conflict or poverty.

"Poverty is one of the most powerful driving forces behind the
spread of AIDS. Today, more than 90 percent of the more than 20.1
million people alive today with the virus live in a developing
country," the report added.

The report said across the world the hardest-hit group are
young people between the age of 15 and 24.

Although Africa remains worst-hit, the report warned it could
soon be dwarfed by the Asian epidemic.

"The extensive spread of HIV in South and Southeast Asia began
in the mid-1980s, but its progression has been very rapid. What
is happening in Africa now could be dwarfed by the Asian
epidemic," the report warned.

UNAIDS estimates that by the end of 1995, over four million
were living with HIV/AIDS in Asia. It said while India and
Thailand accounted for most, a rapid HIV spread into specific
populations in other countries of Asia had also been detected.

"For the Asian adults, the predominant modes of transmission
are unprotected heterosexual intercourse and (drug) needle-
sharing," the report said.

UNAIDS said up to 1.2 million adults in North America and
Western Europe are living with HIV/AIDS, including more than
750,000 in the United States alone.

"The people predominantly affected to date have been
homosexual or bisexual men and injecting drug users, together
with their sex partners," the report said.

UNAIDS said the transmission of HIV through heterosexual
intercourse was also on the rise in North America and Europe.

The briefing was attended by World Health Organization
director-general Hiroshino Nakajima, UN Children's Fund executive
director Carol Bellamy and representatives from the World Bank,
UN Population Fund and the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.