Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday November 17 8:20 AM EST
David Fox

UNAIDS, the world body's anti-AIDS taskforce, said nearly half the sexually active adult populations of some African cities were infected with the deadly virus for which no cure has been found.

"Only a few years ago we thought southern Africa would be spared the worst," said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the organisation set up to tackle Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. "Tragically, today we realize it has not."

Piot was speaking at the opening of the UNAIDS governing board meeting, which has gathered in the Kenyan capital to review its budget and workplan for the next year.

Piot told the meeting that UNAIDS would soon be reporting "significant increases" this year in new HIV infections and AIDS cases worldwide.

Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) is the infection that leads to AIDS. It is spread chiefly through sexual contact, by transfusions of contaminated blood, by sharing needles during intra-veinous drug use and during childbirth or through breast-feeding.

Piot said there were now figures indicating that nearly half the adult populations of some cities in Botswana, Malawi and Zambia were living with HIV.

He said too few countries had mounted a truly comprehensive response to the epidemic and that more knowledge was needed.

"What we do know after 15 years of experience is that we do not know enough," Piot said in a statement. "But we must use what we have learned...and do what we can to make a difference.."

HIV and AIDS first came to prominence in the early 1980s in the United States where it was chiefly confined to the homosexual community.

Experts say a combination of ignorance and prejudice meant the disease was not initially taken seriously, and only when it started spreading rapidly through heterosexual communities was action taken.

Africa has been particularly hard-hit by the disease because of a combination of poor social education and also because other endemic sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea significantly increase the chance of HIV transmission.

UNAIDS says over 350,000 babies -- most of them in Africa -- are infected with HIV each year, either during the bloody process of childbirth or from breast-feeding.

UNAIDS is to unveil its latest figures on global infections on World AIDS Day on December 1.

Experts said the data will show shocking increases in HIV incidence as well as serious underreporting of the disease in the last five years.

Current figures estimate over 30 million people around the world are infected with HIV, but that less than 5 percent of them know it.

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