Alliance for Living - News

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has already claimed over 20 million lives and another 39 million people are currently estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

During 2004, an estimated 4.9 million people became newly infected with HIV, including approximately 640,000 children under 15 years of age.

GENEVA, March 3, 2009 (AFP) - The rate of HIV infection is "surprisingly high" among people aged over 50 years, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that cases among older people may be growing worldwide.
"The scant data that exist suggest a surprisingly high prevalence and incidence of HIV among individuals 50 years of age and over," said the WHO in its March bulletin.

According to authors of the study, in the United States, the proportion of people aged over 50 with HIV soared to 25 percent in 2006 from 20 percent in 2003.

In Europe, only eight percent of reported cases arise from older people.
In Brazil, the number of people over 50 with HIV doubled between 1996 and 2006 -- from 7.5 to 15.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

"The frequency of infection with HIV in older people is worrying. We need to understand why and when these people are becoming infected so that public health campaigns can be better targeted to prevent such infections," George Schmid, a WHO scientist said.

Public perception of the disease may be part of the reason, with AIDS still being viewed as a "disease of young people." As a result, screening is less common among older people, leading to delayed diagnosis, said the WHO.
"The number of older people with HIV may be increasing worldwide, but doctors seldom consider screening them for HIV so diagnosis is often delayed," added the WHO.

At the same time, older people have lower immunity, which could have led to more rapid deterioration from HIV infection to AIDS, said the study.
The life expectancy of those infected at age 65 or older is just four years, while people who are infected at age five to 14 have life expectancies of over 13 years.

The authors noted that sexual activity remains the most likely mode of transmission for older people.

Potency drugs such as Viagra emerging in the 1990s have extended the sex life of older people, who are also less likely than younger people to practise safer sex, said the WHO.

More than 2 million children living with HIV worldwide: UN report
Agence France-Presse - April 3, 2008

GENEVA, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - More than two million children worldwide were living with the HIV virus in 2007, most of whom were infected before they were born, a joint study by United Nations humanitarian organisations said Thursday.

Some 290,000 children under the age of 15 died of AIDS last year and 12.1 million children in sub-Saharan Africa lost one or both parents to the disease, according to the "Children and AIDS" report by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and UNAIDS.

"Today's children and young people have never known a world free of AIDS," said UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman.

"Children must be at the heart of the global AIDS agenda," she urged.

The report highlighted four areas crucial to tackling the epidemic: preventing HIV transmission from mothers to children; providing paediatric treatment; preventing infection among adolescents and young people; and protecting and supporting children affected by AIDS.

While some progress has been made in all these areas, the report found that significant challenges remain.

For example, 21 countries including Botswana, Brazil, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand are now on track to reach 80 percent coverage to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2010, up from only 11 countries in 2005.

The proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving retroviral drugs to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to their children rose by 60 percent from 2005 to 2006 -- although this still means that less than a quarter (23 percent) of all such women get retrovirals.

The report also said that the number of HIV-positive children in low- and middle-income countries getting retrovirals rose 70 percent over the same period to 127,000 from 75,000.

"We must provide antiretroviral treatment for women who require it... to achieve this, health systems and their most precious component, the health care workforce, must be strengthened," said Kevin DeCock, director of the WHO's HIV division.

The report also welcomed an increase in funds to tackle the disease, even if funding gaps persist.

"Governments and donors alike are allocating more resources to prevention, treatment and protection efforts," it said.

In 2007, some 10 billion dollars (6.4 billion euros) were available to combat AIDS, up from 6.1 billion dollars the previous year.