World News 27-11-2002 42 Million Living With AIDS who: UNAIDS what: Says 42 million people worldwide have AIDS and young women are under particular threat when: Yesterday snippet: "For the first time in the 20-year history of the global Aids epidemic, the number of women infected with HIV has equalled the number of men," reports The Independent today following the release of new figures from the United Nations Aids programme. "About 42 million people, half of them women, are living with Aids or HIV, and 3.1 million have died this year as a result of the condition, according to the report," says Mark Henderson in The Times (in an article available to registered users only). "Women are particularly affected in sub-Saharan Africa, the region worst hit by the epidemic, with 29.4 million infected people and 2.4 million annual deaths." "Experts warned of a huge surge in cases in China, India and the Far East which could see tens of millions of people becoming infected in future years," says The Scotsman. "This is a critical moment of opportunity and danger," says Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organisation. "Unless we see national prevention initiatives championed by the highest level of government, the growth in infections can be unstoppable." "But the report does cite some successes through national initiatives targeting vulnerable groups such as drug users and sex workers," says Sky News. "There has been early signs of success in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia and South Africa, where rates of infection in some groups have levelled off or decreased." [... more]

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