GUARDIAN Despite huge investments, AIDS spreads By Akin Jimoh, Science Reporter TWENTY years into the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, fatigue may have set in as spending to control the spread of the virus continued to slide. Although developed countries are spending about $350 million to fight the epidemic, "it is alarming that AIDS is expanding three times faster than the funding to control it," the Executive Director of the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), Peter Piot, said in a statement. The ensuing crisis may be more intense in Nigeria and other African countries, experts have said. In fact, hundreds of demonstrators had on Wednesday in Washington, United States, rallied to protest policies which they said protect drug companies but make AIDS drugs too expensive for people in Africa. About 22.5 million people in the continent are infected with HIV or down with AIDS. Between 2.5 to 4.5 million Nigerians are currently infected with HIV. Piot warned that "weighed against the global catastrophe of the AIDS epidemic, the level of spending for HIV prevention around the world is minimal". Between 1990 and 1997, the number of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS tripled from 9.8 million to 30.3 million, a study just released by the UN said. During this period, funding for HIV and AIDS prevention grew from $165 million to $273 million. This year, about 47 million people are estimated to have HIV - almost five times as many as in 1990 - but the $350 million spent to control it is only slightly more than double the 1990 funding level, the report by UNAIDS and researchers from Harvard University, United States, said. Piot noted that "donor nations must realise that their substantial investments towards improving conditions in developing nations will be effectively obliterated unless more is invested in fighting AIDS - the single greatest threat to global development today". The Washington protest in favour of legislation sponsored by Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., an Illinois Democrat, was aimed at forbidding the Clinton Administration from retaliating against any African trade provisions to obtain cheaper AIDS drugs. The administration had been criticised for pressuring developing countries on behalf of drug companies to abandon trade approaches that could help them obtain cheaper medications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ G-SHOCK SPORTS WATCH - Built Tough! Built Cool! G-SHOCK keeps you in Sync! Shock Resistant and Loaded with Features! Electo-luminescent, Satisfaction Guaranteed*No-Hassle Returns*Only $69 Free Freight in US http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/143 eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/group/naijanews Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com