HIV REDUCED BY 21%, WORLD AIDS DAY 2011

Report by the UNAIDS program on HIV/AIDS that 2011 was game channging year for the AIDS response with unprecendneted progress in scienc. According to report, that new HIV/AIDS infections and death have fallen to the lowest levels since the peak of the epiodemic.

New HIV/AIDS reduced by 21% since 1997,2005. "Even in a very difficult financial crisis, countries are delivering in the AIDS response," " We have seen a massive scale up in access to HIV treatment which has had a dramatic effect on the lives of the people". said Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

UNAIDS has mapped a new framework for AIDS investments ,which have focused on high impact. [UNAIDS press repot]

RARE HIV FOUND IN FRANCE

Experts say the discovery of a rare HIV-indicating a need for monitoring of HIV. Rare type of HIV infection has been found on a man in France who had just returned from Togo, a country in western Africa.

So far just a handful of people diagnosed with HIV type-1-N group and they all are in Cameroon, but new cases in men in France showed that the type of HIV infection also exist in other states.

Neil Bowdler Science reporter BBC reported the man, 57, lives in France and recently traveled to Togo. In that country he had a sexual relationship with a local partner.

The man was taken to Saint Louis Hospital, Paris last January. The symptoms that arise include high fever, rashes, and ulcers. "Examination showed an early decline in so-called CD4 cells, an important sign of HIV infection," reports Neil Bowdler. spreadVariants of HIV was first discovered in a Cameroonian woman in 1998.

The scientists say this case is more likely related to a virus that attacks the immune system in wild chimpanzees with HIV than the general.

The discovery of new types of HIV may not provide significant meaning, but it does show that the virus is spread to people outside the territory of Cameroon. Team doctors who diagnose new cases in France, said the findings emphasize the importance of strict monitoring of HIV.

"Primary infection in the case of HIV-1-N group showed that rare group is now spread outside the Cameroon which emphasizes the importance of monitoring the HIV epidemic on a continual basis," said a team of doctors led by Professor Francois Simon.

THERE ARE 34 MILLION HIV CARRIERS IN THE WORLD

"Cases of infection were reduced 21%, but the number of infected was fired by the lowest mortality rate. In 2010, there were 1.8 million deceased victims of the virus." The report of the United Nations programme for AIDS (UNAIDS), presented Monday in Berlin, reported major advances in the treatment of the disease. Between 1997 and 2010, cases of infection were reduced by 21 percent, while the number of new infections in children dropped from 550 to 390 thousand cases, and the number of deaths in children under 15 declined between 2005 and 2010 20%.

However, in the case of pregnant women, the figure was not encouraging: Although nearly half of pregnant women with AIDS received antiretroviral drugs to prevent infection of their babies, in 80% of cases the treatment was not successful.

UNAIDS also noted that there was a large growth in the number of persons infected with HIV, but it was clarified that this is not to have grown sick people, but that they received a better treatment which allowed to reduce the mortality rate. In this way, 34 million people live today, with the virus. In 2001, were 28.6 million.

The director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe, stated that some 2.5 million deaths in poor countries and middle-income since 1995 with the introduction of drugs against AIDS and better access to them avoided. "We are on the brink of a major milestone in the AIDS response," he added in reference to the progress on treatments for immunodeficient disease.

According to the report, 68 percent of those affected is found in Africa, especially in the southern region of sub-Saharan Africa, which produces 70 percent of new cases of infection with the virus. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, also saw a significant rise in infections, with 1.5 million cases, concentrated mostly in Russia and Ukraine. In Western and Central Europe, the number reached 840 thousand.

In Latin America, the number of new infections annually, it was in decline since 1996, stabilised at beginning of Millennium and remains stable since then with 100 thousand patients per year. The report highlights Brazil "complete and early" respond to the epidemic, ensuring "the access to services for prevention and treatment of HIV for vulnerable and marginalized people".