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JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 19 -- The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement.
AIDS remains a devastating public health crisis in the most heavily affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa. But the far-reaching revisions amount to at least a partial acknowledgment of criticisms long leveled by outside researchers who disputed the U.N. portrayal of an ever-expanding global epidemic.
The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show. The worldwide total of people infected with HIV -- estimated a year ago at nearly 40 million and rising -- now will be reported as 33 million.
Having millions fewer people with a lethal contagious disease is good news. Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.
"There was a tendency toward alarmism, and that fit perhaps a certain fundraising agenda," said Helen Epstein, author of "The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS." "I hope these new numbers will help refocus the response in a more pragmatic way."
Overestimating (possibly unintentionally) the number of AIDS victims in order to build up the currently lackluster support for fighting a deadly/devastating epidemic is certainly the most horrible crime against humanity that could ever be committed. Those monsters!
Overestimating (possibly unintentionally) the number of AIDS victims in order to build up the currently lackluster support for fighting a deadly/devastating epidemic is certainly the most horrible crime against humanity that could ever be committed. Those monsters!
Creating a backlash among the general public -- which is embittered and made ore cyncial, through such abuses and prevarications -- with the true victims being those inflicted with the disease -- is indeed a crime against humanity.
Overestimating (possibly unintentionally) the number of AIDS victims in order to build up the currently lackluster support for fighting a deadly/devastating epidemic is certainly the most horrible crime against humanity that could ever be committed. Those monsters!
I guess the Peacekeepers for Sex program in the Congo was unintentional also. And besides, all the sex abuse and rape was probably meant to draw additional help to the congo, so really, its okay.
Creating a backlash among the general public -- which is embittered and made ore cyncial, through such abuses and prevarications -- with the true victims being those inflicted with the disease -- is indeed a crime against humanity.
In a sense, it's a theft that keeps on stealing.
If anyone reads this story and decides, "Well, now that there's fewer AIDS victims I don't really care about it anymore so they can all die" and "backlashes" in that fashion then they're the criminals against humanity. There's no indication in the article that the overestimation was intentional, either.
I guess the Peacekeepers for Sex program in the Congo was unintentional also. And besides, all the sex abuse and rape was probably meant to draw additional help to the congo, so really, its okay.
If anyone reads this story and decides, "Well, now that there's fewer AIDS victims I don't really care about it anymore so they can all die" and "backlashes" in that fashion then they're the criminals against humanity. There's no indication in the article that the overestimation was intentional, either.
If anyone reads this story and decides as you suggest, then your strawmen will have come to life and you can pretend to be Mickey in the Sorcerer's Apprentice: http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=61159&rendTypeId=4 (broken link)
What most folks will do is lose even more respect for international efforts to combat this dread disease -- and the blame for that lies squarely on the UN's army of disinformationists and bloated bureaucrats.
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