HIV infection rate slows

last updated 8 January 2015

Kampala, Uganda

The rate of HIV infection, which causes AIDS, is leveling off in some African countries—which is both good news and bad, said a U.S. government report released this week. The good news is that in certain countries, notably Uganda and Tanzania, the decline suggests that young people are heeding prevention programs that emphasize condom use or abstinence. In many other countries, though, the infection rate is only declining because so many people in the most vulnerable sector of the population—sexually active adults—have already died of AIDS. And in still other countries, such as South Africa and Nigeria, the HIV infection rate is still increasing. “It’s too early to call this a victory,” Peter Piot, head of the UNAIDS agency, told The Boston Globe. “But if everything continues to go in the right direction, we may have something here.”