Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 4 December 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5395, pp. 1790 - 1791
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5395.1790
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

News of the Week

HIV EPIDEMIOLOGY:
On World AIDS Day, a Shadow Looms Over Southern Africa

Michael Balter

PARIS--According to the United Nations' latest statistics, released last week, an estimated 5.8 million people worldwide were newly infected with HIV in 1998, bringing the total number of HIV-infected people to 33.4 million. Nearly 70% of the new infections occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, which continues to be the hardest hit region of the globe. Yet AIDS activists and physicians continue to question whether political leaders are treating the epidemic with the urgency it deserves, most notably in South Africa, where health officials have decided not to provide the antiviral drug AZT to HIV-infected pregnant women--despite its proven effectiveness in preventing transmission of the virus to their offspring--because, they argue, it is too expensive.

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)