UN Says AIDS Spread is Accelerating in "Multiple Epidemics"

Peter Piot, the UN's top HIV/AIDS official, told reporters at a conference that the goal of halting and reversing the spread of AIDS/HIV by 2015 will not be met -- but that some countries will get control of the disease by then.

The truth is that HIV/AIDS is spreading much faster than efforts to rein it in, in areas such as Eastern Europe and Central America.

"What we are faced with is multiple epidemics and that the epidemic is still expanding," Piot said. "We are actually still moving into the globalization of the AIDS epidemic."

Pretty scary.

Piot said the global fight against AIDS is seeing its first signs of success in Africa, citing declines in the number of new HIV infections among young people in the capitals of Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia and Uganda, where people are more educated and prevention programs have started. But he also said the $8 billion being spent this year to combat AIDS must be doubled to between $14 billion to $16 billion annually.

Piot urged world leaders to fight against AIDS with the same seriousness that they reserve for issues of national security.

Conference elegates also discussed research into AIDS vaccines and microbicides, which are gels or creams that women could use to kill the HIV virus during sexual intercourse.

More details here.