U.N. Says 39.5 Million People Have HIV

Posted on Nov 21, 2006

It’s spreading fastest in Eastern and Central Asia and Eastern Europe, but almost two-thirds of the world’s cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. “AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria make up the deadliest triad the world has known,” said the U.N.‘s Kofi Annan.

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AP:

The global HIV epidemic is growing, leaving an estimated 39.5 million people worldwide infected with the deadly virus, the United Nations said Tuesday.

AIDS has claimed 2.9 million lives this year and another 4.3 million people became infected with HIV, according to the U.N.‘s AIDS epidemic update report, published on Tuesday. Spread of the disease was most noticeable in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since the first case was reported in 1981, making it one of the most destructive illnesses in history.

“In a short quarter of a century AIDS has drastically changed our world,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a staff meeting Monday in Geneva. “AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria make up the deadliest triad the world has known.”

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