HIV and global warming

Here is another misconception. Australian The Age informs us that climate change is the latest threat to the world’s growing HIV epidemic.

“Climate change will lead to food scarcity and poorer nutrition, putting people with perilous immune systems at more risk of dying of HIV, as well as contracting and transmitting new and unusual infections,” said Professor David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research.

The specialist said the HIV landscape was grim, with 16,000 new infections worldwide each day and the failure of research to produce a much-needed cure or vaccine.

This got me thinking. Is the HIV situation really that bad? Let’s have a look at the UNAIDS 2007 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

The estimated global adult HIV prevalence rates don’t seem to have increased since 2000. In Sub-Saharan Africa the rates started declining around 2000. The number of people newly infected also decreases. Yes, there are more people living with HIV, but the rate of deaths is also declining, implying that people with HIV now live longer. Before HAART, the time between infection and death was estimated to range from eight to 13 years. Today, patients can expect a life expectancy equivalent to that of the general population.

So what is this all about, now we’ve got HIV-alarmism on top of the AGW-propaganda?