Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Calypte Biomedical Corporation (CALY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cindy Powell who wrote (306)	11/25/1998 1:53:00 PM
From: Sherman Chen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 381

Tuesday November 24 5:56 PM ET Global HIV cases up 10% in 1998 LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters Health) -- By the end of 1998, 33.4 million people worldwide will be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to figures released by the UN and the World Health Organization. This is a 10% increase over 1997 figures, officials note. The numbers break down to 11 people around the world becoming infected with the virus every minute during 1998 -- close to 6 million new cases in total. And 1 in 10 of these new cases were in children under age 15, many infected before or at birth, or through breastfeeding. An estimated 2.5 million deaths worldwide in 1998 were due to AIDS, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. "The epidemic has not been overcome anywhere," experts write in a report released Tuesday by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). "Virtually every country in the world has seen new infections in 1998, and the epidemic is frankly out of control in many places." "Young people from 10 to 24 currently represent nearly a third of all the people of the developing world -- and if HIV/AIDS continues on its present track, it is hard to imagine how the developing countries can possibly cope with the added human and economic burden of millions of new AIDS cases," Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund, said in a statement accompanying the report. The incidence of the disease is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where approximately 4 million people were newly infected with HIV this year, or nearly 70% of the global total. Moreover, an estimated 90% of the new global infections in children younger than 15 years were in Africa. Within this region, the bulk of new infections have been reported in East Africa and in Southern Africa, the investigators say. According to current estimates, between 20% and 26% of Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe residents between the ages of 15 and 49 are living with HIV or AIDS. In Asia, the UNAIDS/WHO investigators report, more than 7 million people are infected with the virus and "HIV is clearly beginning to spread in earnest through the vast populations of India and China." North America and Western Europe are seeing a reduction in AIDS deaths due to the efficacy of combinations of anti-HIV drugs, the investigators write. However, during 1998 no reductions in the number of new infections were recorded in these regions. "Clearly, the epidemic is no longer out of control in these countries. Just as clearly, it has not been stopped," they note. The United Nations investigators say that member countries need to launch a "massive campaign of prevention aimed at those most vulnerable to HIV -- the poor, the powerless, and the voiceless, especially the children and young people." In her statement, Bellamy noted that the theme of this year's World AIDS Campaign is mobilizing young people as a force for change. "Using that force to its fullest will require far more commitment and resources than we have yet seen -- from governments, donors, and civil society, including nongovernmental groups, communities, families, and the private sector," she said.