This bit of news crossed the wires this morning. It appears that the sub-continent of India has the largest number of AIDS cases in the world, though the percentage of its population effected is still much lower than that found in sub-saharan Africa.
The most worrying bit of news in the report is the admission by the UN AIDS office that we are still behind in our efforts to respond to the disease.
“On Tuesday, the U.N. AIDS office released a 630-page report that said the rate of new infections appears to be slowing but that the international community was far from getting the virus under control.
‘We are making progress, but unfortunately I cannot tell you that we are on the way to reversing this epidemic,’ UNAIDS head Dr. Peter Piot told reporters. ‘The truth is we are still running behind.’
The report said that nearly 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. India now has the largest number of AIDS infections, but the epidemic still remains at its worst in sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita rates continue to climb in several countries.
A third of adults were infected in Swaziland in 2005. By comparison, India’s per capita rate is low, at 0.9 percent of its 1.02 billion people.”
(Via AP.)
