WORLD : Estimate of AIDS Virus Carriers Put at 8-10 Million Worldwide
The World Health Organization today boosted by 25% its estimates of how many people around the globe are infected with the deadly AIDS virus, saying it now thinks up to 10 million may be afflicted.
Grim new figures show that 8 million to 10 million people worldwide are infected with the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, instead of the previous estimate of 6 million to 8 million, WHO said.
WHO officials warned that the spread of HIV is “accelerating dramatically” in Africa, parts of Asia and, to a lesser extent, Latin America. As many as one of 40 adult men and women in sub-Saharan Africa carries HIV, WHO said.
Up to 800,000 people worldwide have developed acquired immune deficiency syndrome since the disease was first recognized in 1981, and about half of those people have died so far, WHO said.
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