Rich Nations Accused of Complacency About AIDS

The world’s richest countries are growing alarmingly complacent about the global AIDS epidemic as infections reach new levels, the United Nations said in a report Tuesday that projected the number of cases in Russia alone more than doubling this year.

“It’s very striking that in the wealthy countries there is a perception that AIDS is over--there is far less investment in education programs,” said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS.

“The availability of treatment has resulted in a complacency which is becoming really dangerous,” he said. “Considering that today we’ve got as many new infections in Western Europe and North America as 10 years ago, there is no excuse for that.”

The annual AIDS Epidemic Update, released Tuesday, predicted 45,000 new cases this year in North America and 30,000 in Western Europe. Nearly 1.5 million people in the industrialized countries will be living with the AIDS virus by the end of the year.

The report said the number of new HIV infections in Africa dropped this year for the first time, to 3.8 million from 4 million the previous year.

But the drop may partly be because people most at risk have already been infected, Piot said.

And UNAIDS was quick to damp any optimism, noting that the number of people infected worldwide is expected to rise to 36.1 million, with 5.3 million new infections. Three million people, up from 2.6 million a year ago, are expected to die of AIDS.

Those who inject drugs with needles are thought to represent the bulk of new infections and are most hurt by failing prevention efforts, the report said.

The same group accounted for the alarming rise in infections this year in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where the number of people living with the virus is expected to rise from 420,000 to 700,000--a figure the report called “a conservative estimate.”

In Russia, UNAIDS said, 300,000 people will be infected by the end of the year--more than twice last year’s figure of 130,000.

“In one year, more people have become infected with HIV in Russia than all previous years combined,” Piot said, adding that the disease “shows no sign of curbing its exponential growth” in Russia and has spread to cities nationwide.

Africa remains the hardest-hit region, with 25.3 million people infected by the virus. Of the 3 million people expected to die of AIDS this year, four-fifths are in Africa.

The report estimates 1.4 million people living with HIV or AIDS in Latin America and 5.8 million in South and Southeast Asia.

Most Asian infections are in a few large nations, but the study said AIDS has ample room for growth through the sex trade and drug use.