Success in HIV prevention

The number of people dying and becoming infected with the HIV Virus has dropped. A UN report reveals worldwide deaths to AIDs has gone down slightly for a second straight year.

But the UNAids agency warned the epidemic was still not over in any part of the world.

Latin American director Cesar Nunez told reporters intensified prevention and treatment efforts were helping to fight the spread of the disease:

‘‘I think we can be very happy that there has been an important increase in efforts of prevention and treatment around the world. The number of new infections has lowered in many countries, in particular East Asia and other countries in central Africa.’‘

Some 33 million people worldwide were infected with the HIV virus in 2007 – Most of them in Africa.

But, while the overall total of global deaths and those infected fell, infections in countries including China and Russia rose, with European states Germany and Britain also seeing increases.

Until 2005, deaths had climbed steadily since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s.