Crisis and Climate Could Affect HIV/AIDS Rate

Posted on Mar 28, 2010

Flickr / chatirygirl

The global economic crisis and climate change can obviously wreck economies and ruin the planet, but both could also help spread HIV/AIDS, experts say, as inequality increases vulnerability and, left unchecked, could lead to a “universal nightmare.”

HIV/AIDS currently infects five new people for every two put under treatment, an unsustainable rate that is devastating Africa and stirring concerns over growth of the disease in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. —JCL

Reuters:

Economic crisis and climate change concerns could affect the fight against the AIDS virus and lead to a “universal nightmare,” the head of the United Nations’ agency for HIV/AIDS said on Sunday.

The global economic downturn has brought about greater inequality and could increase vulnerability and fuel the epidemic, said Michele Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS.

About 33.4 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and the AIDS virus. Since AIDS emerged in the 1980s, almost 60 million people have been infected and 25 million have died.

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