AIDS (Pestilence) Slows

A major boost in AIDS prevention and treatment efforts worldwide over the past two years has helped slow the epidemic's growth and reduce its death toll, the United Nations' AIDS agency reported Tuesday. The cost of cementing those gains will grow, along with the demand for prevention and the need for treatment, the United Nations' Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report says. "We've achieved more in the last two years than in the preceding 20," UNAIDS director Peter Piot said Tuesday at the United Nations in New York. "We need now to continue these efforts more than ever. Otherwise all our previous investments will be wiped out." Among the findings:

• Roughly 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, 67% of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 75% of all AIDS deaths.

• Approximately 3 million people in developing countries were being treated for HIV by the end of 2007, with an increase of 1 million in the past year alone. Tripling the number of people in treatment will cost about $11 billion a year.

• Deaths fell to 2 million last year from 2.2 million in 2005. About 25 million people have died since AIDS emerged.

• The epidemic has leveled off in some African countries. Though in several, infection rates hover at 15%. It continues to grow in Asia and Eastern Europe. About 1.5 million people are infected in Eastern Europe, 90% of them in Russia and Ukraine.