NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UN 'AIDS CLOCK' COUNTS GROWING NUMBER OF HIV INFECTIONS

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UN 'AIDS CLOCK' COUNTS GROWING NUMBER OF HIV INFECTIONS

An "AIDS Clock", which ticks off the increasing global number of HIV/AIDS cases and features a constantly changing collage of images from a world living with the disease, will be on display at Headquarters starting Thursday, 30 October.

Doctor Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will officially open the exhibit at 2:30 p.m. in the Public Lobby, prior to the opening of the tenth annual meeting of the Committee of the Co-Sponsoring Organizations of UNAIDS.

The exhibit is dramatic, with the AIDS Clock hand sweeping around, ticking off a new HIV infection every 10 seconds. There were more than 3.1 million new HIV infections during 1996, approximately 8,500 a day of which 7,500 were adults and 1,000 children, according to UNAIDS.

"One of the unique features of the AIDS Clock is that, with its moving images, it gives a human face to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and at the same time, brings home the reality that over six people around the world become infected with HIV every minute. Today, people need to be reminded that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over", said Dr. Piot.

"In addition to being a personal and family tragedy, AIDS is a threat to national development, taking women and men in their 30s and 40s, their most productive years. Moreover, at health clinics throughout the world, we are seeing the most rapid rise in the number of new cases of HIV infection among women and children. Reproductive health care programmes have a major role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention, particularly in helping women and young people to better protect themselves from infection", said Dr. Sadik.

The theme of the AIDS module is how to prevent the spread of the HIV infection which leads to AIDS. The display puts the emphasis on responsible sexual behaviour as a means of preventing HIV transmission, but it also reminds viewers that we have to care for people living with HIV/AIDS, comfort the bereaved, as well as work for prevention and seek for a cure.

- 2 - Note No. 5481 28 October 1997

UNAIDS reports that more than 23 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in the world today. Half of the new HIV infections are occurring in women. In addition, there are now approximately 830,000 children infected with HIV/AIDS.

Low-income countries are among the hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as the display points out, and the least able to cope with its ravages. They need assistance to provide information and advice on prevention, as well as care and treatment.

Prepared by UNFPA and UNAIDS, the AIDS Clock exhibit has been displayed at all recent major United Nations Conferences, beginning with the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.

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