HIV News: UN Finds 47 Percent Of New AIDS Virus Infections In Latin America Occurred In Brazil

The number of people infected in Brazil with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, increased 11 percent from 2005 to 2013, reported the United Nations (UN). Unlike Brazil, the global trend in the same period is downward, with a decrease of 27.5 percent, from 2.9 million people infected with HIV to 2.1 million, the agency said. A report released Wednesday by UNAIDS, concentrating on Brazil showed that last year 47 percent of all new cases of HIV (HIV positive) were in Latin America.

HIV can be transmitted by blood, or breastfeeding or during sex, although at present it can be controlled with antiretroviral therapy (drug cocktails). Last year 1.5 million people died as a result of the AIDS virus worldwide, down 11.8 percent from the 1.7 million deaths registered in 2012, the UN revealed. The results indicated a 35 percent decrease compared with those of 2004 and 2005, in which 2.4 million deaths were recorded each year.

The UNAIDS report stressed that there are 35 million people living with HIV in 2013, more than 34.6 million in 2012. The UN estimates that of these, about 19 million people do not know they are HIV positive. In Brazil, last year 730,000 people were infected with AIDS, the equivalent of 2 percent of the world population with the disease. An estimated 44,000 people were infected with HIV last year. Africa remains the continent with the most cases of AIDS, with 1.1 million people killed by the virus in 2013.