The AIDS epidemic continues to claim millions worldwide

The news on World AIDS Day, 2006, is much like that of past years: mixed.
Some progress is being made in treatment and prevention, but millions of people, many of them among the world's poorest, are facing early deaths from the disease.
South Africa remains among the most hard-hit nations, with nearly a thousand people dying each day of AIDS/HIV. Even more frightening, the Actuarial Society of South Africa and the Medical Research Council estimates that there are 1,400 new infections each day.
The consequence of this, as reported by the Associated Press, is that fewer than half of the 15-year-olds alive in South Africa today will see their 60th birthdays. About 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million people are infected with the AIDS.
Signs of hope
But even in South Africa, there is some hope. The government there has shown a new commitment to battling the disease by naming Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka to oversee its anti-AIDS efforts. He is to unveil a new and presumably more aggressive campaign today.
He replaces Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who advocated folk remedies over modern antiretroviral medicines.
HIV attacks a body's immune cells. Antiretroviral drugs prevent the virus from multiplying.
Meanwhile, in India, the only nation with more people infected by AIDS than South Africa, there was also some good news.
Former President Bill Clinton announced that two Indian drug companies have agreed to cut the cost of HIV and AIDS treatment for children.
The price cuts for drugs will make it possible to treat a child for as little as 60 a year.
Clinton also said that a coalition of countries will provide 35 million and the Clinton Foundation will donate an additional 15 million toward purchase and distribution of the drugs.
Other avenues
In addition to advances in treatment and reductions in the cost of treatment, some strides are being made along a wide, and even improbable, swath.
For instance, the British medical journal The Lancet reported that a microfinance project in South Africa reduced AIDS among women. Women who started their own small businesses gained a financial independence that allowed them to get out of abusive relationships. Abusive men are more likely to have multiple partners and are less likely to use condoms.
Microbicide gels give women some protection against HIV transmission when men refuse to wear condoms. And there is evidence that men who are circumcised are less likely to be infected by female partners.
AIDS continues to claim too many victims in both the richest and the poorest of nations. More research, cheaper drugs, greater education and lifestyle changes will be necessary before the disease is conquered. Sadly, there will be many more World AIDS Days before that happens.