Unless something changes, over 250 million people will die from AIDS in the next few years

Narrow graves are predug and waiting for the dead in Zimbabwe

We are still in the earliest stages of the epidemic.

The spread of HIV across the globe is now twice as fast as

five years ago

85 million people were infected with HIV by the end of 2002

In many towns and cities across central Africa, up to a third of all young adults

are infected with HIV

AIDS is not a gay plague. There are millions more

women and children infected with HIV throughout the world

than gay men.

In Romania up to 1 in 10 of all children in

orphanages became infected with infected

needles.

In South East Asia, HIV is spreading so fast that it threatens to dwarf

the African problem by 2010.

By 2001, India had more HIV cases than any other nation. In Bombay alone, there are an estimated 1000 new cases every

night.

In Indonesia, infection rates have jumped in a year from

15% to 40% among drug users.

Antiretroviral drugs can prolong life expectancy but are hugely

expensive and often unavailable to developing countries. In the

West, complacency about HIV is increasing as people mistakenly believe these drugs are a cure.

Already we are seeing new strains of the virus which are

resistant to treatment.

Worldwide, over 3 million children have HIV infection . Half a million die every year.

Babies of infected mothers are at greatest risk of catching the HIV

virus from the birth process itself and from

breastfeeding.

In developed countries, 50% of people who contract HIV will

develop AIDS within 10 years. 94% of those with AIDS will die

within 5 years.

What can we do ?

Unless something changes, over 250 million people will die from AIDS

in the next few years