Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PRNewswire - November 23, 1999
"HIV is the true Y2K bug and without better prevention efforts and a vaccine its impact will be felt well into the next millennium. Without urgent, dynamic leadership from the developed world, the catastrophic impact of HIV on disadvantaged populations worldwide will continued unabated. Future generations will ask us, 'Why was this disaster allowed to happen?'" said Craig E. Thompson, APLA's Executive Director.
UNAIDS has identified three trends in the report that exemplify the state of the epidemic in 1999. In sub-Saharan Africa, new evidence shows that 55 percent of infected adults are women, with life expectancy in southern Africa likely to drop to as low as 45 by 2010. The steepest increase in HIV infection occurred in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union--seeing the HIV-infected population double between 1997 and 1999, mostly due to injection drug use. And finally, prevention efforts in countries such as Thailand, India and the Philippines have had success in reducing HIV risk and lowering or stabilizing HIV infection rates, and some Latin American countries have begun providing antiviral drugs to people infected with HIV.
"There is no room for complacency in any discussion of this epidemic. The threat of HIV has not diminished in any country. We have even seen evidence from North America and Western Europe suggesting that availability of life-prolonging therapies may be contributing to an erosion of safer sexual behaviour. This is tragic," said Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director in a press release issued today by UNAIDS
The report AIDS Epidemic Update-December 1999, can be found online at http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/index.html.
AIDS Project Los Angeles, a non-profit community-based organization, provides direct services to more than 8,000 men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles County. Services include a food bank, a dental clinic, housing assistance, transportation, mental health counseling, case management, home health care and Adult and Child Buddy support. APLA also provides extensive treatment and prevention education and advocacy on local, state and federal AIDS-related legislation.
SOURCE AIDS Project Los Angeles
CONTACT: Nicole Russo-Okamoto, 323-993-1363, John Garner, 323-993-1336, both of AIDS Project Los Angeles/
Web Site: http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/index.html/
Web Site: http://www.apla.org/
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