Falling HIV rates not the whole story

JOHANNESBURG, 2 August 2007 (PlusNews) - When it comes to sub-Saharan Africa's devastating AIDS crisis, there is an understandable tendency to latch onto any scrap of good news.

Figures suggesting the epidemic is waning in some countries are being trumpeted by governments and international donor agencies as evidence that their prevention efforts are succeeding.

But the real story behind increases and decreases in HIV prevalence is far less clear. "There's an awful lot of vested interests, but it's sufficiently murky that no one really knows what's going on," Prof John Hargrove, director of the Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, told IRIN/PlusNews.

See the full article here http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=73541