HIV infections on decline in Africa

Washington Post - Seven African countries are experiencing a decline in the prevalence of HIV infection among young, urban adults, finally reaping the benefit of AIDS prevention and treatment, the United Nations said yesterday in its annual report on the global epidemic.

That good news was offset by troubling signs that the first African country to reverse the epidemic, Uganda, is experiencing a resurgence of infection, as is Thailand, another early success story.

Based on hundreds of national and regional surveys, the report stitches a patchwork of progress and setbacks: a successful national treatment program in Brazil and a new, aggressive response by the Chinese government, alongside a worsening HIV epidemic in the former Soviet bloc and a new outbreak among gay men in Europe.

But the pendulum swing underway in Uganda and Thailand appears to mark a new phase in the 25-year-old AIDS epidemic.

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