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"MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD AIDS DAY" 1 December 2004, Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations

01 December 2004

This World AIDS Day, the news is sobering -- the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the
world. The number of people living with HIV globally has reached its highest level with close to 40
million people, up from 36.6 million in 2002. The steepest increases in HIV infections occurred in East
Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia over the past two years.