Originally published December 13 2005
UN releases annual report on the progress of HIV/AIDS prevention
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the United Nations' annual update on HIV-AIDS, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe all showed declines in HIV prevalence, but sub-Saharan Africa still contains 25.8 people living with HIV/AIDs, 60 percent of the world's HIV victims.
The UN's annual update on HIV-Aids notes declines in adult HIV prevalence in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
"Each of those countries, however, remains saddled with a large, potentially ruinous epidemic," it says.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 25.8m people living with HIV: over 60% of the number of people with HIV worldwide.
The update, published by the Joint UN Programme on HIV-Aids (UNAids), also says the number of people living with HIV throughout the world is at its highest yet.
HIV prevalence remains particularly high in Southern Africa, and is continuing to expand, notably in Mozambique and Swaziland.
In Zimbabwe, HIV prevalence among pregnant women declined from 26% in 2002 to 21% in 2004, the UNAids update says, citing data from the national surveillance system.
"However, with over one in five pregnant women still testing HIV-positive in Zimbabwe," infection levels remain among the highest in the world," UNAids says.
In Swaziland, HIV prevalence among pregnant women rose to 43%, up from 34% four years earlier.
HIV infection levels in west and central Africa remain the same, other than a decline in prevalence in urban areas of Burkina Faso.
Botswana and Uganda are leading the way in rolling out anti-retroviral treatment, with at least one-third of those who need ARVs now receiving them in those countries.
But in South Africa, where ARV provision has become a burning political issue in the last few years, at least 85% of people in need of ARVs - almost 900,000 people - were still not receiving the drugs by mid-2005, UNAids says.
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