clicking on the un logo will open a new browser window where you may view the charts in a slide show at your own pace

Joe I apologize for my tone in my response below - It has been a very long and difficult day - no excuse though.  I hope you might find some of the information in this post informative and perhaps even enlightening.

This post contains besides an expression of my own opinions and feelings two items which I believe significant.  The First is the AIDS counter at the top. It is a link to the AidsNewsArchive and the numbers reflected are based on the most recent figures available from UNAIDS the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS. The number increases by 1 every ten seconds the counter updates automatically whenever you reopen this page or refresh it.

The second item is a link  to the 11 charts incorporated within the UN update on HIV/AIDS. These charts reflect their estimates on virtually all aspects of the AIDS PANDEMIC broken down by demographics and with global and regionally counts. (click the UN AIDS LOGO and  a new browser window will open up with a slide show allowing you to open each chart at your own pace)

According to their data THREE MILLION - (3,000,000)  MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN PERISHED FROM AIDS IN 2001. TODAY   EIGHT THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED - (8,200) - WILL DIE FROM AIDS. ALSO TODAY FOURTEEN THOUSAND - (14,000) - MOTHERS, FATHERS, SONS, DAUGHTERS, BROTHERS, SISTERS HUSBANDS, WIFE'S AND LOVERS WILL BECOME INFECTED WITH THE HIV VIRUS.

Now Joe suppose for arguments sake we take the figures you believe are closer to reality  and we make an assumption that    only     FOUR THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED - (4,100) - WILL DIE TODAY FROM AIDS - SO INSTEAD OF 1 LIFE BEING SNUFFED OUT EVERY TEN SECONDS, AIDS ONLY KILLS SOMEBODY EVERY TWENTY SECONDS!

Tell me Joe even with these new figures do you think they make any difference to the Mother or Father who watches their child waste away? Will it make a difference if we accept your figures to the orphans who have lost both their parents to this disease and who will also probably parish due to either disease and/or malnutrition because their parents are dead, their country has no safety net or infrastructure to handle this kind of social upheaval and at 5 or 6 or 10 years old they don't have the ability or street smarts to survive?

The WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION estimates that in the next 60 minutes - 342 - will die from AIDS - Lets take the figures you believe are closer to the truth or reality and in the next hour only  - 171 -  will drop dead from AIDS - THESE ARE NOT JUST NUMBERS MY FRIENDS!!  WE COULD BEHAVE LIKE THE GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACIES WHICH WE ARE ALL SO FOND OF AND ARGUE STATISTICAL DATA - SPEND MONEY TONS OF IT ON NEW STUDIES AND REPORTS - OVER AND OVER AGAIN - WE CAN PRETEND THAT THE PROBLEM CAN'T BE AS BAD AS REPORTED - WE CAN IGNORE IT AND HOPE IT WILL GO AWAY LIKE MANY GOVERNMENTS AND SOCIETIES ARE DOING - 

BUT IF WE DO THAT CAN SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME  WHAT  WORDS SHOULD WE USE TO THE MOTHER OR FATHER OR LOVER WHO HAS LOST A CHERISHED ONE IN ORDER TO CONSOLE THEM?  SHOULD WE TELL THEM THAT IT'S REALLY NOT THAT BAD CAUSE ONLY HALF OF THOSE THAT DIED REALLY DIED FROM AIDS (MAYBE).  I'm sure that such information will truly console them in their grief!

In building aidsnewsarchive.org over the past 8 months or so - I have had a rather rapid education on this subject. In indexing the information and placing it on the site I have read reports, statistics, research papers, stories, news items, biographies and to tell you the truth I truly wish most of it was not cluttering up my brain right now - You believe that only half the deaths that have been attributed to AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa are in reality deaths that have been caused by the pandemic. From everything I have gathered I tend to believe that virtually all of the statistical reports that have been released in the past year ARE EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE IN THERE ESTIMATES AND THAT THIS PANDEMIC IF NOT GIVEN EVERY RESOURCE THAT THE WORLD HAS AT IT'S DISPOSAL TO DEFEAT IT - WILL IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE MAKE THE BLACK PLAGUE WHICH WIPED OUT EUROPE AND ASIA IN THE 14TH CENTURY SEEM LIKE A MERE CASE OF THE SNIFFLES.

I will now get off the damn soapbox with one last statement to everyone - ESPECIALLY YOU PEEPS -

  Ignorance is Dangerous, Be Informed and Be Safe