UNAIDS, the multi-agency UN coordinating body for AIDS prevention and control, has produced its increasingly horrifying review of the world AIDS situation, just ahead of next month's world AIDS conference in South Africa. We present here an edited version of five of the organization's "fact-sheets" relating to the most affected regions and countries, including - here and there - some hints of success:
The newly independent states
Previously characterized by very low prevalence, the region is now experiencing an extremely steep increase in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. While the estimated cumulative number of HIV/AIDS cases was 170,000 at the end of 1997, it climbed to 400,000 by end 1999.
Parallel epidemics of HIV, injecting drug use and sexually transmitted infections are unfolding in a social context of economic crisis, rapid social change, increased poverty and unemployment, growing prostitution, and changes in sexual norms.
The bulk of new...