Africa: Aids Epidemic Continues to Outstrip Response

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http://allafrica.com/stories/200407070003.html

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Johannesburg

New global estimates of the AIDS epidemic are slightly lower than previously thought, but HIV continues to spread and outpace the response, said the UNAIDS '2004 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic' launched on Tuesday.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicentre of the epidemic. It has 10 percent of the world's population but is home to 70 percent of all infected people - an estimated 25 million. Adult HIV prevalence appears to have stabilised, but this is due to the fact that new infections - more than two million every year - have been offset by a rise in AIDS-related deaths.
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Southern Africa remains the world's worst affected region. Botswana and Swaziland have the world's highest prevalence rates among people aged 15 to 49 at 37.3 percent and 38.85 precent respectively, followed by Lesotho with 28.9 percent, Zimbabwe with 24.6 percent, South Africa with 21.5 percent, Namibia with 21.3 percent and Zambia with 16.5 percent.

The reasons for the region's high rates include poverty, social instability leading to family disruption, high levels of sexually transmitted infections, low status of women, sexual violence, high mobility due to migrant labour, and ineffective leadership during critical periods in the epidemic's spread, said the report.
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