SPAIN, BARCELONA, July 5, 2002: The United Nations warned that at least 68 million people will die by 2020 unless there are “drastically expanded” efforts to prevent and treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Their portrait of human misery on a gigantic scale was released in anticipation of the 14th International AIDS Conference, set to open Sunday in Barcelona, Spain. “It is clear to me that we are only at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in historic terms,” said Dr. Peter Piot, director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, which produced the study. Scientists fear that AIDS is expanding beyond Africa and is poised to explode in Asia, particularly in the most populous nations on Earth, India and China. In India, 3.9 million are already believed to be HIV positive. The UNAIDS report released Tuesday appeals for more action by governments and the private sector to provide easier access to drugs to fight climbing infection rates of HIV.
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