PRESS BRIEFING ON LAUNCH OF ‘AIDS EPIDEMIC UPDATE 2004’

 

Women were increasingly infected with HIV and now accounted for an estimated half of the 37.2 million people worldwide living with the deadly virus, Desmond Johns, Director of the New York Office of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), told a news conference at Headquarters this afternoon.

Launching “AIDS Epidemic Update 2004”, the joint annual report of UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), Mr. Johns said the trend toward feminization of the disease in the last two years was particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, where 75 per cent and 50 per cent of HIV carriers, respectively, were women ages 15 to 24.

In other regions, he continued, where the epidemic was spread largely by intravenous drug users and female prostitutes with male clients, women made up between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of reported cases.  In North America, HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death among African-American women ages 35 to 44, apparently the result of undisclosed high-risk sexual behaviour of their male partners.

“This demonstrates eloquently the paradox that many women face, where they are at heightened vulnerability in the face of low risk”, Mr. Johns said.  “So very often -- because of societal norms, gender imbalance and violence against women -- women are placed at risk for who they are and not so much for what they do.”

The AIDS epidemic among both sexes was growing fastest in Eastern Europe, driven by rapid growth in Russia and Ukraine, and in East Asia, fuelled by a high increase in China.  Infection rates in those regions had increased 40 per cent in the past year and nine-fold over the last decade, due largely to high intravenous drug use among young people.  In North America, high-risk sexual behaviour among gay men and increasingly among heterosexuals had made HIV/AIDS the third leading cause of death among African-Americans.

However, the sustained drop in the number of new infections in East Africa, particularly among young people, was cause for optimism, Mr. Johns said.  He attributed the decrease to effective HIV/AIDS education and prevention among youth.  In sub-Saharan Africa overall, the epidemic was stabilizing.  In Asia, despite high growth rates in China and India, overall levels remained low.  In Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and the Philippines, where prevalence rates were low even among high-risk groups, a sustained push toward HIV prevention and treatment would avert serious epidemics in the future.

Global spending to fight the killer disease had risen from $2 billion in 2002 to $6.1 billion in 2004.  However, that figure must increase to $10 billion by 2005 and $20 billion by 2007 to respond to the epidemic by scale.  Funds must be spent more effectively, he said, noting that UNAIDS was working with donors to increase efficiency and avoid overlap and duplication of efforts.

Responding to a correspondent’s question regarding the causes of rising infection rates in the Middle East and North Africa, Mr. Johns said the region was the least affected in the world, with very low prevalence rates.  The legal framework and social and cultural make-up of those societies were fairly intolerant to sex between men and intravenous drug use, driving the epidemic underground and resulting in a small rise in cases.

As to whether rates had increased because governments were more willing to report cases, he said that the vast majority of infected people were unaware of their status and their cases went unreported.  Estimates of UNAIDS and country reports alone revealed increases in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.  Too many governments saw AIDS statistics as a barometer of national character, making it difficult to obtain accurate figures.

Greater leadership and commitment on the part of governments was needed to the problem more forthrightly and honestly.  The greater attention of the Chinese and Indian Governments to their respective countries’ epidemics was encouraging.  In rural areas, UNAIDS had formed partnerships with large, omnipresent companies, such as Coca-Cola, and local religious leaders to educate people in remote areas about HIV prevention and treatment.

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