With the record of 33.2 million patients infected with AIDS globally this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations AIDS agency said this number is better compared to last year’s 39.5 million.
A decline of 6 million in recorded patients was caused by a new method used by the U.N. officials in counting the real number of victims. But critics were questioning if the record was reliable. They said even if this was true, the remaining number is still high.
Dr. Kevin De Cock, WHO AIDS department director, was happy to note the declining number of AIDS victims’ deaths globally based on the new methodology used.
WHO and UN are expected to present their annual AIDS reports soon after their expert meeting in Geneva and justify the methods they used in data collection.
India’s 6 million AIDS cases were cut in half this year and other data from the sub-Saharan countries showed decreasing numbers based on the records, but the remaining cases are still too large according to some health experts.
Other officials were claiming this new data can be manipulated and are recently looking into other available data in the national household surveys. Earlier records were based on the number of identified AIDS-infected pregnant mothers and drug users as those belonging in the high-risk groups.
In 2007 alone, there was a record high of 2.7 million new AIDS victims and the UN health experts are still not sure if this decline compared to last year’s 5 million infected individuals will progress in the coming years.
The sub-Saharan countries of Africa remain as the main sites of AIDS cases and the disease is considered the leading cause of more deaths in the region infecting men, women and children. The groups of people in the high-risk category are homosexual men, drug addicts and prostitutes.
AP