World AIDS Day - 1st December

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Epidemic update 2007 - essential findings
Every day, over 6800 persons become infected with HIV and over 5700 persons die from AIDS, mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services. The HIV pandemic remains the most serious of infectious disease challenges to public health. Nonetheless, the current epidemiologic assessment has encouraging elements since it suggests:

*the global prevalence of HIV infection (percentage of persons infected with HIV) is remaining at the same level, although the global number of persons living with HIV is increasing because of ongoing accumulation of new infections with longer survival times, measured over a continuously growing general population;

* there are localized reductions in prevalence in specific countries;

* a reduction in HIV-associated deaths, partly attributable to the recent scaling up of treatment access; and

* a reduction in the number of annual new HIV infections globally.

Examination of global and regional trends suggests the pandemic has formed two broad patterns:

* generalized epidemics sustained in the general populations of many sub-Saharan African countries, especially in the southern part of the continent; and

* epidemics in the rest of the world that are primarily concentrated among populations most at risk, such as men who have with men, injecting drug users, workers and their sexual partners.

Arabic Forum