HIV outbreak peaked in 1996
World
health officials say there's some encouraging data on the HIV front -- the
number of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS seems to be mostly
stable except for Africa.
United
Nations experts say the figure -- about 33 million -- has remained virtually
unchanged for the last two years. The number comes with a margin of error of
several million people.
Last year,
HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 72 percent of all 2.7
million new HIV cases worldwide.
Daniel
Halperin, an AIDS expert at Harvard University, says access to AIDS drugs is
helping to cut the death rate. The number of people on lifesaving AIDS drugs
worldwide has increased 10-fold in five years.
Some
experts say it's time to focus more attention on bigger killers like pneumonia
and diarrhea in developing countries that are far easier and cheaper to treat.
Source: wztv.com