MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World AIDS Day

The United Nations has warned against the continuation of the epidemic growth and called for an exceptional response to the threat.

The United Nations on Thursday launched the World AIDS Day by calling for an "exceptional response" to the threat and said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behaviour, the epidemic continued to grow.

The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in 2005 had reached its highest level ever at an estimated 40.3 million people, nearly half of them are women, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a message to mark the occasion.

Piot said the World AIDS Campaign had chosen "Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise" as its new theme, "referring to the promises that we have all made to deliver the exceptional response demanded by AIDS."

"The lessons of nearly 25 years into the AIDS epidemic are clear. Investments made in HIV prevention break the cycle of new infections ... By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS," Piot said.

"The commitment to resource and deliver effective prevention, treatment and care services for all who need them is one we must all keep. There are no excuses." He added.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced more than £27.5 million of Government money for global Aids prevention.

The announcement, on World Aids Day, will provide around £20 million for the International Aids Vaccine Initiative and £7.5 million for work to develop microbicides which could protect against HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

It was made as a committee of MPs released a report warning that ambitious targets on HIV/Aids made by the world's richest nations at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July may be undermined by a failure to monitor progress.

The House of Commons International Development Committee also raised concerns about the "increasingly moralistic" tone of Aids prevention programmes implemented by the US.

Washington's increasing focus on abstinence as a means of halting the spread of Aids "does not tally with an evidence-based approach", warned the committee.

Mr Blair's announcement follows a meeting of EU development ministers in London on Tuesday, chaired by by International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, at which they agreed a vision for an "Aids-free generation" - the first such Europe-wide pledge.

The EU ministers also backed efforts to give people around the world better access to condoms and more effective information about HIV and Aids.

Mr Blair said: "The Aids crisis represents a human tragedy for the more than 40 million men, women and children suffering from the disease around the world.

"As President of the G8 and the EU, the UK is showing leadership in the global fight against Aids through a strong commitment to increased prevention and treatment.

"The funding looks to the long term and will encourage the development of vaccines and microbicides that will benefit both the developing and developed world."

Latin America situation

Mainly because of their large populations, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia have seen the largest HIV epidemics in the region, with Brazil alone accounting for more than one third of the people living with HIV in Latin America.

The highest levels of HIV prevalence are found in the smaller countries of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. No single factor is fuelling the region's epidemics, but a combination of unsafe sex (between men, and men and women) plus injecting drug use are primarily to blame.

In nearly all Latin American countries, according to recent studies reported by UNAids and the WHO, the highest levels of HIV infection are found among men who have sex with men and the second-highest among female sex workers.

PhotoBuenos Aires covers city's most famous landmark with giant dark-pink condom as part of an awareness campaign to prevent infection with the HIV virus, as World AIDS Day is marked around the globe.

A giant pink condom yesterday sheathed one of Argentina's most famous monuments, the 67-metre obelisk that dominates the city's grandest avenue, in an unmissable gesture on World AIDS Day.