[the epidemiology of HIV infection]

By the end of 1998, estimates indicate that 33.4 millions people were infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Over two-thirds of these people live in Sub-Saharian Africa, where HIV has mostly spread through sex between men and women. Today, the epidemic is spreading rapidly in the southern countries of Africa. One-fifth of infected people live in South and South-East Asia, where the epidemic was identified from 1992, mostly in intra-venous drug injectors, sex workers and their clients. In Latin America (4% of infected people), men who have sex with men and drug injectors are the transmission categories mostly concerned. Countries of North America and western Europe concentrated 2.7% of infected people. HIV incidence is stable and AIDS cases in many industrialized countries are falling. AIDS is one of the ten first causes of death in the world; early testing and prevention should remain a high priority in all countries over the world.