UN/ HIV: As new figures published yesterday showed that five million people worldwide became newly infected with HIV last year, more than in any previous year, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, described the fight against the spread of the infection as "one of the central challenges of our time", writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
The 2004 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, which reported the new figures, said that in every region of the world new cases of HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, rose last year.
New cases of HIV rose also in western Europe. In the Republic they rose by 10 per cent last year, with 399 people newly diagnosed. The total number of HIV cases reported in the State to date stands at 3,408.
Meanwhile 12 new AIDS cases were reported in the State in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available. A total of 731 cases had been reported by the end of 2002, and the number of people who had died at that time was 369.
Mr Kitt expressed concern at the continuing rise in the numbers of people living with HIV and AIDS worldwide.
"These latest statistics, which are based on a revised and more accurate reporting system, show that the epidemic is continuing to grow in all regions.
"While sub-Saharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of the disease, with over 25 million infected people, the disease is also expanding rapidly in Asia and eastern Europe," he said.
"These latest statistics underline the fact that the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS is one of the central challenges of our time. The spread of the disease has health, development, security and economic implications which require a concerted global response," he added.