Condom use among people with multiple sexual partners is increasing, and young people are waiting longer to have sexual intercourse, the report says. In seven of the countries most affected by the pandemic -- all in Africa -- the percentage of young people having sex before the age of 15 has dropped from 35% to 14%.
"The lesson here is that where there is investment, prevention and treatment work," said the Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha of the Hope Institute in Uganda.
The report came a day before President Bush is scheduled to sign a bill that would devote $48 billion to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis over the next five years, up from the $15 billion spent in the last five.
But those gains abroad come at the expense of African Americans, according to another report issued Tuesday by the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.
Seven of the 15 poor countries receiving assistance from the president's program have fewer infected people than the 500,000 U.S. blacks who are HIV-positive, the report says. The U.S. is spending $402 million this year to combat AIDS among minority groups, a Bush spokesperson said.
"Were Black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the U.S. government," said Phill Wilson, chief executive of the institute. A free-standing Black America would rank 105th worldwide in life expectancy, he said.
Only four countries outside sub-Saharan Africa have a higher prevalence of HIV infection than the estimated 2% among blacks in the U.S., he added. Blacks account for 1 of 8 Americans but 1 of 2 HIV infections in the country.
"U.S. policymakers seem to be much more interested in the epidemic in Botswana than the epidemic in Louisiana," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, chief executive of the National Action Network. "This is an unnecessary and deadly choice. Both need urgent attention."
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thomas.maugh@latimes.com
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2.7 million
New HIV cases in 2007, down from 3 million in 2001
2 million
AIDS-related deaths last year, down from 2.2 million the previous year
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Source: UNAIDS report
