We are living with a new plague

Pandemic. The word seems to be on everyone's lips. But we are already in the midst of a pandemic, which is far more serious than what bird flu will ever develop into. The HIV/Aids pandemic continues to scythe down large sections of humanity. Three million people died of Aids last year and five million were infected with HIV. The total of people living with the virus is now more than 40 million, the United Nations said.

In the worst-hit regions, notably sub-Saharan Africa, the trend is steadily upwards. In some countries there are suggestions that the scale of infection could be worse than official figures indicate.

This crisis continues to defy all efforts to contain it.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 77 per cent of those infected are women. Their social status is low, they have few rights and they are unable to negotiate with men for safe sex. There are similar social problems in Asia, a continent where half of humanity resides.

The United Nations declared that it is difficult enough to fight the scourge now but some countries, China and Myanmar, have been slow to acknowledge the full scale of the problem. As an example the UN states that in the world's most populous nation, China, the overwhelming majority of the population does not know how the virus is transmitted. This ignorance is, literally, deadly.

HIV/Aids knows no national or cultural boundaries. It can strike any nation or society but it tends to wreak more havoc among those least able to fend for themselves the poor, the disadvantaged, the marginalised. We are living with a new plague that must be defeated either by drugs or by education, but best with a combination of the two. We may not yet have the drugs but education is free. When it comes to HIV, ignorance must not be an excuse.