Thursday, November 22, 2007

U.N. to Say It Overstated H.I.V. Cases by Millions


While it is important for these organizations to get this right, this mistake is very good news. Less disease and less death is always a reason for joy.

What we need now are real reductions!

Onésimo Alvarez-Moro

See article:
The United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency plans to issue a report today acknowledging that it overestimated the size of the epidemic and that new infections with the deadly virus have been dropping each year since they peaked in the late 1990s.

The agency, Unaids, will lower the number of people it believes are infected worldwide, to 33.2 million from the 39.5 million it estimated late last year.

The statistical changes reflect more accurate surveys, particularly in India and some populous African countries. Some epidemiologists have criticized for years the way estimates were made, and new surveys of thousands of households in several countries have borne them out.

In only a few countries, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, do the figures reflect widespread behavioral changes, such as decisions by many people to have sex with fewer partners.

See full Article.