Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 1 December 1995
"Alienating people from society breeds helplessness, indifference and contempt," James Gustave Speth, administrator of the U.N. Development Program, said Friday at a panel discussion on AIDS.
"In such an environment of alienation, we feel we have nothing to gain by protecting ourselves or others, thus creating fertile ground for the spread of HIV," he said.
In the past year, more than 2 million people were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, a new program that will coordinate U.N. efforts to fight the disease. Three-quarters of a million died.
"Many of those who died in the past year lived right here, in this country, in this city," Piot said.
But he said most AIDS deaths were in the developing world, where about 90 percent of the more than 14 or 15 million infected people live. There is often little help available for victims and social attitudes toward the disease hamper prevention and containment.
"The epidemic has become a lens through which injustice and inequality have become sharply defined," said Speth. "This World AIDS Day now focuses our attention on social change."
The World Health Organization estimates more than 4.5 million AIDS cases have occurred worldwide since the epidemic began in the late 1970s.
It estimates 18.5 million adults and more than 1.5 million children have been infected with HIV since then. By 2000, there will be 30 to 40 million infections.
"HIV continues to spread at the rate of over 6,000 infections a day -- 6,000 too many," Piot said.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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