The number of new cases of AIDS is slowing throughout Africa, but this isn't good news: the primary cause of the slow-down is the fact millions of people in high-risk groups have already died from the disease.

This sobering statistic is included in a new status report on the AIDS epidemic around the world, recently released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

According to the "AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2000," the disease has hit Africa hardest, with that continent accounting for 75 percent of all people -- children and adults -- who have died from AIDS.

An estimated 10 percent of Africa's adult population now has AIDS, meaning the continent is home to between 70 and 80 percent of all AIDS cases in the world. At least 2.4 million Africans died from AIDS-related problems this year alone, Fox News Service reports.

Problems are most severe in Botswana, where more than a third of the population has the disease, and in South Africa, where 4.2 million people have contracted AIDS.

The lack of adequate health care and extreme poverty levels are two leading causes for the disease's enormous toll in Africa, the UNAIDS report states.

The agency states that a proposed $3 billion effort that could be funded by wealthy Western nations, focusing on basic problems of disease transmission, would have a significant impact in reducing AIDS cases in Africa.

Other nations may likewise face serious problems in the coming years, however.

Russia, for example, will likely see its number of new AIDS cases double within the year, and other Eastern European nations face similar problems. These areas are strapped for cash and haven't been able to devote many resources to HIV/AIDS prevention, the report states.

Countries in Western Europe and North America also are having to redouble their prevention campaigns, because they now report new cases at the same levels they had a decade ago. Most of the new AIDS cases in these regions are transmitted through infected needles shared by drug users. These groups are also the hardest to reach in terms of traditional prevention efforts, the report states.

There are nearly six million people with AIDS or HIV in Southeast Asia and another 1.4 million in Latin America. The UNAIDS report warned these regions that drug use and prostitution could raise their numbers as well, Fox News reports.

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