November 27, 1997. Copyright, 1997, Graphic News. All rights reserved

HIV INFECTIONS ROSE BY A THIRD IN 1997
By Oliver Burkeman

LONDON, November 27, Graphic News: OVER A MILLION children and nearly 30 million adults Ð a third more than estimated this time last year Ð are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, according to a new United Nations report.
The study, published by the UNAIDS programme and the World Health Organisation, coincides with the tenth World AIDS Day on Monday (December 1), which will focus on how the epidemic affects children.
Almost 16,000 people, the UN calculates, are infected each day with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By the end of December, a total of 1.1 million under-15s and 29.5 million others will be HIV-positive, although Ôthe vast majority have no idea they are infectedÕ.
There is good news: the rate of new cases of AIDS is falling rapidly in the industrialised world, with Western European incidences in 1997 down an estimated 30 percent on 1995 figures. The shocking statistics are also partly due to better surveillance techniques.
But costly new anti-retroviral treatments are beyond the reach of the developing world, where the crisis is escalating. In sub-Saharan Africa the situation is worst: two-thirds of all new infections occur there, afflicting 7.4 percent of all people aged 15-49. In Uganda, the epidemic accounts for 70 percent of deaths among young adults.
Even in wealthier states, though rates of infection are falling in the relatively well-off and well-educated white gay community, the spread of HIV among poorer African-American and Hispanic groups continues to accelerate.
In a message for World AIDS Day, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: ÔAIDS is the most publicised disease in the world. But its impact on children has received an inadequate response.Õ
Although most children are infected in the womb or through breastfeeding, he added, others are at risk from commercial sex, blood transfusions and intravenous drug use. More suffer indirectly: 8.2 million HIV-negative children have lost mothers or both parents to Aids.
Education remains vital. Far from encouraging sexual activity among the young, the report says, high quality sex education is having a noticeable effect in slowing the spread of AIDS.
ENDS


Source: UNAIDS/WHO: Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, December 1997 (UNAIDS Geneva: +412 2791 3666)