Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 50 613 502 at 10.44am on Wednesday February 5 2003
About 375 670 South Africans are expected to die from HIV/Aids this year, an increase of more than 30% from the estimated 219 660 Aids-related deaths in 2000, according to projections by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) reported to Parliament’s social development committee.
The results of another major Aids research project were released at the same time.
The HSRC found that most HIV-positive people are African women. The study revealed two surprises: an infection rate among whites of 6,2%, substantially higher than previous estimates, and an infection rate in the Western Cape of 18,5% compared with earlier estimates of 8,6%.
Ignorance: A survey finds that most of China’s population does not know what causes Aids or how to prevent it — and 17% of respondents had never even heard of the condition.
China’s government estimates that 850 000 of the country’s nearly 1,3-billion people are infected with HIV. However, some experts believe the number could be much higher, said Deborah Holtzman, the United States Centres for Disease Control scientist who planned the study.
As many as 10-million people could be infected by 2010. Of respondents who had heard of HIV, 73% did not know it was a virus, and 89% did not know how it could be detected. Though 91% of these respondents knew that HIV could be transmitted, 22% could not identify even one route of transmission; 68% knew that HIV could be spread through sex.
Source: Marianne Merten and Associated Press