The United Nations report on the global AIDS epidemic says the disease will kill an estimated two-point-four million people in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of this year.
The report (released today / Monday by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization) says 25-point-eight million adults and children in the region have HIV, an increase of nearly a million since 2003.
The U.N. survey says the epidemic appears to be growing in Mozambique and Swaziland -- but adds that HIV is becoming less prevalent in Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
The report attributes the declines in part to increased use of condoms. But it warns rising mortality rates could also affect the recent figures.
Rates in Ethiopia, Eritrea Comparatively Low
The United Nations AIDS report says the adult infection rate of 4.4 percent in Ethiopia remains low compared to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
But the report warns that the AIDS problem is shifting to the countryside, with more adults in rural areas being infected with the HIV virus than in urban areas.
The U.N. also says that fewer than 10 percent of people in need of antiretroviral therapy were receiving the drugs by mid-2005. AIDS is blamed for 30 percent of all adult deaths in Ethiopia.
The AIDS report also said that infection rate was stabilizing at 2.4 percent in Eritrea.
