New report cites positive trends in

A comprehensive review of epidemiological and behavioural data released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) concludes that HIV prevalence has fallen in Zimbabwe over the past five years, and that HIV incidence has also declined.

The figure of 5.134 million people living with HIV in 2004 has been produced by a methodology and statistical calculation based on serological tests performed in sentinel sites all over India.

There is new evidence that adult HIV infection rates have decreased in certain countries and that changes in behaviour to prevent infection—such as increased use of condoms, delay of first sexual experience and fewer sexual partners—have played a key part in these declines. The new UN report also indicates, however, that overall trends in HIV transmission are still increasing, and that far greater HIV prevention efforts are needed to slow the epidemic.

A review of epidemiological and behavioural data commissioned by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other international partners has found preliminary indications of declining trends in HIV prevalence and incidence in Zimbabwe over the last five years.

As commercial sex and unsafe injecting drug use are the biggest drivers of HIV in most Asian countries, supportive government policies that address these behaviours are urgently needed to slow the spread of AIDS, according to a series of three reports released today by the Monitoring AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network

By 2025, Africa and the world could face three very different scenarios for AIDS. And depending on the actions taken today, up to 43 million HIV infections could be averted over the next 20 years.

A new report released today shows that the number of women living with HIV has risen in each region of the world over the past two years, with the steepest increases in East Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In East Asia, there was a 56% increase over the past two years, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48%.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific region must urgently adopt comprehensive responses to HIV in order to avert a catastrophic increase in infections and drastic economic consequences, according to a new report released today by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

UNAIDS warned that the number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has risen in every region of the world and last year five million people became newly infected with HIV -- more people than any previous year. These findings are contained in the 2004 UNAIDS Report of the global AIDS epidemic, released today in advance of the XV International AIDS Conference, to be held in Bangkok from 11-16 July 2004. The new report represents the most accurate picture of AIDS to date due to the more comprehensive country surveillance data and improved methods for estimating HIV rates.