JOHANNESBURG, Nov 21 (AFP) - AIDS is keeping Africa in its death grip, claiming 2.4 million lives on the continent in 2005 out of the worldwide death toll of 3.1 million from the epidemic, the annual AIDS report said Monday.
While 480,000 people died of AIDS in Asia, 18,000 in North America and 12,000 in western and central Europe, the epidemic was by far the deadliest in Africa.
"Sub-Saharan Africa remains hardest-hit, and is home to 25.8 million people living with HIV, almost one million more than in 2003," said the report compiled by the UNAIDS agency and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Some 65 percent of all new infections -- 3.2 million people out of a worldwide total of 4.9 million -- were in sub-Saharan Africa.
While Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe have reported declines, HIV/AIDS appears to be on the rise in Mozambique and Swaziland, while South Africa's AIDS crisis shows no signs of abating, according to the report.
"HIV prevalence levels remain exceptionally high (except for Angola), and might not yet have reached their peak in several countries," it added, describing "one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history."
In southern Africa, the epicenter of the global AIDS crisis, HIV infection levels among pregnant women are 20 percent or higher in six countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
UNAIDS and the WHO said that prevention and providing anti-retrovirals (ARVs) was key to halting the death spiral from AIDS on the continent.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, a comprehensive prevention and treatment package would avert 55 percent of new infections that otherwise could be expected to occur until 2020," the report said.
In Zimbabwe, changes in sexual behaviour including use of condoms were cited as the reason for a drop in HIV in pregnant women, from 26 percent in 2002 to 21 percent in 2004.
Changes in behaviour such as limiting the number of partners were also cited in Uganda for the drop in HIV national prevalence from 15 percent in the early 1990s to 7 percent in 2004-2005.
Uganda was also commended for access to treatment with more than one third of people in need receiving ARVs in mid-2005, the best coverage in sub-Saharan Africa with the possible exception of Botswana.
While HIV and AIDS are also on the decline in Kenya, UNAIDS and WHO cautioned that this drop may also be attributed to the death rates outpacing infection rates as the epidemic matures.
AIDS is gaining ground in Mozambique, with recent studies showing "a dramatically worsening epidemic overall" as infection levels rise in all provinces, from 14 percent in 2002 to 16 percent in 2004, the report said.
In the small kingdom of Swaziland, women are bearing the brunt of the epidemic with a 2004 health ministry study showing that as many as 56 percent of pregnant women aged 25 to 29 were HIV positive.
Elsewhere in southern Africa, UNAIDS and the WHO painted a bleak picture of the AIDS crisis, notably in South Africa, which is home to more people living with HIV in the world, saying the epidemic "is now taking a devastating toll in human lives."
Deaths among South Africans aged 15 years and older increased by 62 percent from 1997 to 2002 and more than doubled in the 25-44 age group, apparently due to AIDS.
At least 85 percent of South Africans in need of ARVs were not yet receiving them by mid-2005, the report said, while 90 percent or more of those with advanced AIDS were unable to access the drugs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
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