The end of the beginning in the fight against AIDS?

While it is not a reason to start partying or to speculate at the end of the epidemic but greater access to anti-retroviral drugs has helped cut the death toll from HIV /AIDS by more than 10% over the last fie years.

According to the BBC the World Health Organization and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) say that the number of people worldwide are infected with HIV (33.4m) is higher than the number infected two years ago (33m). However this is because fewer people are dying.

Furthermore, there has been a significant drop in the number of new HIV infections. UNAids and WHO say better access to powerful drug treatments has helped save many lives. It is estimated that the availability of effective treatment has saved the lived of some 2.9 million lives.

New HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years. In sub-Saharan Africathe number of new infections has fallen by around 15% since 2001 - equating to about 400,000 fewer infections in 2008 alone. Infection rates were down by nearly 25% in East Asia, and by 10% in South and South East Asia.

Director general of the World Health Organization Dr Margaret Chan said: "International and national investment in HIV treatment scale-up has yielded concrete and measurable results. We cannot let this momentum wane. Now is the time to redouble our efforts, and save many more lives."

UNAids executive director Michel Sidibe said although prevention programmes had helped cut new infections, they were often "off the mark". "If we do a better job of getting resources and programmes to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more lives saved," he said.

This is heartening news, especially the reduction in new infections. We are not out of the woods by a ling chalk but things are heading in the right direction at last

Is a new AIDS-like disease emerging in China?

I found the link to a Hungarian website called RSOE Emergency Disaster Information Service via the Fortean Times breaking news section. Sitting among the stories about plans to cull the Scottish wild wallaby population, gay penguin adoption and witch bottles a story about a new, more infectious AIDS-like epidemic in China stuck out like a sore thumb. The Fortean Times may be a journal of strange phenomena but it is not a "tinfoil hat" publication like, say Nexus.

The summary page indicates that the disease is statewide and at least 600 people have been infected. The event description page provides this information:

A new infectious disease is spreading in large areas of Mainland China. Symptoms are similar to AIDS but it spreads faster between family members, even via bodily fluids like saliva. Mr. Lin from Yunnan Province caught a disease last May, unlike anything he had seen before. "This disease destroys immunity cells just like AIDS. The lowest amount of immunity cells of some patients is only 200, mine is 400. The doctor couldn't find many antibodies, so he called it 'Fear of AIDS' disease."

Preliminary research shows that patients have symptoms of fatigue, chronic diarrhea, swollen lymph nodes, and weakened immunity. But doctors cannot find any sign of the HIV virus. "A huge number of people caught the nameless virus but the doctors cannot make a thorough check. So they make a conclusion that it's a 'Fear of AIDS' disease. The symptoms are very much like those of AIDS."

Because the Chinese Ministry of Health doesn't recognize the disease, it has not carried out any investigation. However, patients feel very horrified and sad when they see their family members and friends become infected by coming into contact with their saliva or sweat. "We hope that media reports can pressure the relevant departments to pay more attention to the disease. Do not make any irresponsible conclusions and say it is caused by fear or psychological effect – it is a real virus. Many doctors, including doctors from Beijing also say this is an infectious disease."

Doctors from mainland China also believe patients might catch the disease. However, the exact number of people infected remains unknown and what the mortality rate is, and how many have died from it.

The RSOE site does not seem to be sensationalist and it may well have picked up early indications of a new and highly infectious disease. That said, Chinese doctors have called it a 'Fear of AIDS' disease and this could well be correct for all I know. It would be interesting to see what happens It could be an awful lot of very little of course.

However, new diseases do appear more frequently than we think. Only last week there were reports of a new, Ebola-like disease named LUJO disease (after Lusaka and Johannesburg where the disease struck) which four of the five people who contracted the infection.