Prevention, Treatment Efforts Have ‘Broken’ the Direction of AIDS

I’m Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http World AIDS Day was December first. This year, experts reported more signs of success in halting the AIDS epidemic. The number of AIDS-related deaths and the number of new infections are both decreasing. Michel Sidibe is the executive director of the joint United Nations program known as UNAIDS.She says today we can say that we have changed the direction of the AIDS pandemic. The latest UNAIDS report says new HIV infections have fallen almost twenty percent in the last ten years. And there has been a similar drop in the last five years in the number of AIDS-related deaths. An estimated thirty-three million people worldwide were living with HIV last year. Two and a half million were children. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. Africa south of the Sahara has the most deaths and new infections. But many of those countries have made important progress. Worldwide estimates show that more than two and a half million people became infected with HIV in two thousand nine. At the same time, about one million eight hundred thousand people died from AIDS-related sicknesses. Drug treatment to suppress the virus has expanded. One result has been fewer babies born infected by their mothers. Still, the report says ten million people are waiting for treatment. UNAIDS officials also say not enough is being spent for prevention. They say prevention efforts are responsible for much of the …
Video Rating: 5 / 5