Complementary and alternative medicine during HIV infection.

According to the Joint United Nations Program of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (Joint United Nations Program of HIV/AIDS, 2001), as of the end of 2001, there were about 40 million adults and children living with human immunod-eficiency virus (HIV) infection. This total does not include the 20 million people around the world who already died of AIDS. Of the 40 million currently alive, 37.2 are adults, 17.6 are women, and more than 2.7 are children. In 2001, there were 5 million new cases of HIV infection in the world, and 3 million AIDS related deaths. The large majority (almost three quarters) live in Sub-Saharan Africa where the prevalence rate of the infection among adults is 8.4%; more than 55% of infected individuals are women. The second major pocket of HIV infection is in South and Southeast Asia, with more than 6 million people infected. In North America where the epidemic was first described, there are 940,000 individuals who are HIV- , and in Western Europe, 540,000. Furthermore, South America, China, and East-ern Europe are characterized by a rapid increase in infection rates. These dramatic numbers clearly indicate that the fight against HIV/AIDS is an absolute health, social, economical and political priority in all parts of the world.