HIV infection - the new killing grounds

India

Potential scale of epidemic very alarming. Even with less than 1% infected, India recorded 3.97 million living with HIV in 2001 - the second highest in the world after South Africa. India has 1.2 million children orphaned through Aids, more than any other country

China

The once-secret HIV epidemic is now public and growing. Officials say the number infected stood at 1 million in mid-2002. By 2010, some 10 million will have HIV. The epidemic involves localised outbreaks among drug users and blood donors, but in three provinces it is spreading through sex

Indonesia

Social and economic upheaval have caused sharp rise in intravenous drug use in cities, with big surge in HIV cases. Almost half of the 196,000 Indonesians injecting drugs are HIV-positive. Most are male, two-thirds are sexually active. Some 9,000 women caught HIV after sex with a drug user

Russian Federation

Fastest-growing epidemic in world recorded in eastern Europe and central Asia. In eight years, epidemics have been unearthed in over 30 cities and 86 of the Federation's 89 regions. Total reported infections rose to 200,000-plus by mid-2002, from 10,993 four years ago. Registered HIV cases mask the true scale of infections. In one city, Togliatti, a study found 56% of intravenous drug users were HIV-positive, although three-quarters were unaware

Ukraine

Worst-hit country in Europe, with HIV at 1%. At the end of last year, some 250,000 adults and children had HIV, while some 11,000 died. Although the epidemic started with drug use among mainly youngsters - many of them unemployed, but some still at school - heterosexual sex is now the main route of infection

South Africa

Five million adults and children with HIV in South Africa; the majority being women. Efforts to educate the young about perils of unprotected sex are bearing fruit, with the prevalence among pregnant women under 20 dropping from 21% in 1998 to 15.4 % in 2001. However, infection levels are rising among the over-20s

Swaziland

HIV rate higher than thought possible. Estimated 33.4% infected - second highest in the world, after Botswana at 38.8%. Swaziland is one of six sub-Saharan African countries where deaths and illness brought on by Aids and HIV have taken agricultural labourers off the land, prompting food shortages and famine