PARIS, July 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The AIDS epidemic which has already killed more than 20 million people in 20 years is still in an early phase, a new U.N. report on HIV/AIDS for 2002 said on Tuesday, July 1. 

Unless rich nations step up efforts to curb the disease, the United Nations warned Tuesday the disease will cause the early deaths of 68 million people between 2000 and 2020 if prevention and treatment are not greatly stepped up, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warned ahead of an international AIDS conference opening Sunday in Barcelona, Spain. 

“The AIDS epidemic is still at an early stage. We knew it was the case for Asia and the former Soviet Union,” Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). 

“But in addition it shows no sign of running out of steam in the worst-hit countries, in other words in southern Africa,” he said. 

“We haven’t reached the peak of the AIDS epidemic yet,” said Piot, “It’s an unprecedented epidemic in human history.” 

In Zimbabwe, one-third of adults were HIV-positive by the end of 2001 compared with one-quarter in 1997, the report said. 

In Botswana, the worst-hit country, now has a staggering 39% of adults infected with HIV or AIDS, up from 36% two years ago. Because of AIDS, life expectancy in Botswana has dropped below 40 for the first time since 1950, reports news agencies. 

Theories that the epidemic could level off in heavily hit countries are proven wrong by figures which indicated the disease continues to expand even in areas with already very high HIV prevalence. 

“It’s frightening. It is by far the biggest epidemic that humanity has known in absolute terms,” Piot said. 

“In the 45 worst-hit countries, if the response to AIDS is not intensified there will be 68 million deaths because of AIDS between now and 2020,” he added. 

Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to suffer 55 million of the additional deaths. 

The full report comes on the heels of a U.N. statement last week that China stands on the brink of an AIDS catastrophe. 

HIV/AIDS continues to spread in Asia, especially China and India, while the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe, where the total of infected people has roughly doubled, have the fastest growing epidemic in the world, and in high-income countries people are less vigilant partly perhaps because of the perceived life-saving effects of antiretroviral therapy, UNAIDS said. 

Since the epidemic began, more than 60 million people have been infected with the virus but most of the 40 million, up from 34 million two years ago, still alive today will die if they have no access to treatment. 

However, less than four percent of the six million people in the developing world in need of antiretroviral drug therapy were receiving it at the end of 2001. 

In rich countries, where an estimated 500,000 people were receiving antiretroviral treatment, 25,000 people died of AIDS last year. 

In Africa, where the epidemic threatens to wipe out an entire generation, destabilizing the entire continent, and where only 30,000 of the 28.5 million infected people were getting the treatment, AIDS killed 2.2 million. 

“From a pure medical problem, AIDS has become an issue for economic and social development and even for security,” Piot warned, saying the disease was eating away Africa’s work force, holding back economic development and aggravating famines, reports news agencies. 

“The world can’t afford a whole continent to be destabilized because of AIDS. It’s going to have implications for all continents,” he said. 

“Despite the lowering of prices by nearly 90% of the antiretrovirals, the vast majority of those in need have no access,” Piot said, urging further reductions in prices. “It’s still an enormous scandal,” pointing out that just 4 percent of infected people in developing countries have access to the latest antiretroviral drugs, as opposed to about half in North America. 

The report, calling on rich countries to combat the epidemic, was supported by Piot who said that $10 billion was needed every year for about 10 years to seriously fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS in the most badly hit nations. 

“It’s not asking for the moon,” said Piot. “By any standards that are used for breaches in security, that’s peanuts.” 

“The international community has not given what it should have,” he said. “They have considered it a marginal problem.” 

AIDS spending in poor countries is set to reach $3 billion this year, the report said, well above the $165 million spent in 1998, but far short of the U.N. targets, reports news agencies. 

Young people are at greatest risk of infection as the epidemic continues to spread to nearly every part of the world, the report warned. 

Nearly 12 million young people are HIV positive and about 6,000 become infected daily. About half of all new adult infections are among people aged 15 to 24. Three million of the 40 million people now infected are children under 15 years of age. 

And 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, the report said. 

On a positive note, UNAIDS said political commitment had grown in the last two years and donor funding for fighting the disease had increased six-fold since 1998.