Eight to ten million people around the world are now infected with the virus that causes , and the incidence of the infection is rising dramatically in some pans of the world, the World Health Organization reports.
The estimate is (51) with an earlier projection by the organization that 15 million to 20 million people would be infected by HIV by the year 2005.
The (52) reflect the growing (53) of the virus round the world. "It is clear that the problem of HIV infection around the globe is (54) rapidly, especially in (55) countries in Africa and Asia, "said Dr. Michael Merson, the director of the agency’ s worldwide programs on .
The new estimates are based on a recently (56) ysis of blood tests in which the virus was found in 1988 and . The ysis showed that the (57) of HIV infection is slowing in industrialized countries.
But in sub - Saharan African, cases of HIV infection have increased (58) about 5 million from 2.5 million in 1987. That year, most infected people were found in big cities; now the virus is spreading to (59) areas. The agency calculated that about one (60) 40 men and women is infected in that region.
(61) from Southern Asia, including Thailand and India, showed marked increase in HIV infection among female prostitutes () and people who inject drugs into themselves. The (62) number of HIV infection in Asia has risen from next to nothing two years ago to at least 500,000, the agency reported.
The agency also (63) a rising incidence of HIV infection, cases and () among women and children in the 2000s, with three million of them (65) to die in the next decade.