AIDS still takes toll

Events marking World AIDS Day across Los Angeles County today will vary in focus, from celebrating advances in medicine that keep people alive longer to observing the global toll of a disease that is still a death sentence in too many countries. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

Nearly 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV. The infection rate continues to climb in both developed and developing nations. In the United States, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year revealed that health experts had underestimated the infection rate by 40 percent.

In 2006, the last year data were available, there were 1.1 million in the United States living with HIV, according to new estimates.

Health experts attribute the increase to medications that help people live longer, but also to complacency among young gay men, as well as deep denial and fear of stigma in communities where sexuality and drug use continue to be taboo subjects.