Mexico Leads Slow Decline in HIV-AIDS Numbers in Latin America Costa Rica News
go to original July 25, 2014

The number of HIV infections and AIDS in Latin America descends but does it to a lesser extent than in other regions of the world, something that worries the UN as presented in a report on the overall state of the epidemic.

In Latin America, every hour 10 people are infected with the virus, the report says.

“Latin America worries me specifically. The rate of the decline of new infections with the virus of HIV-AIDS in Latin America is lower than in other regions and is lower than in Africa, and there are countries where we observe an increase in infections or do not observe the descent we should,” Luiz Loures, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, the UN agency fighting the disease, affirmed.

“Latin America is closer to the regions that are less evolved than to the ones that are advancing,” added the expert.

The report notes that between 2005 and 2013 a “slow, almost stagnant, decline in new infections, as evidenced by falling 3 percent in the number of new infections, was observed in the region.”

There are regional differences, like the fact that Mexico and Peru succeed in reducing new infections by 39 percent and 26 percent respectively between 2005 and 2013, while in the same period Brazil registered an increase of 11 percent.

“We need to reassess the way we are working against the epidemic in Latin America,” concluded Loures.
The expert mentioned several factors to explain the increase, the principal, the growth of new infections among men who have sex with men.

Read the rest at The Costa Rica News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!