By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - HIV/AIDS infection rates are growingamong intravenous drug users, prostitutes and gay men aroundthe globe but they are often viewed as outcasts and refusedtreatment, according to a report issued on Thursday.
The report, from the International Federation of Red Crossand Red Crescent Societies, also called on governments andhumanitarian agencies to pay more attention to AIDS in theirresponse to natural disasters and armed conflicts.
"HIV is a long-term and complex disaster on many levels ...For marginalised groups across the world -- injecting drugusers, sex workers and men who have sex with men -- rates areon the increase," said the Geneva-based humanitarian agency.
Those groups, living on the fringes of society in manycountries and especially in the developing world, "often facestigma, criminalisation and little, if any, access toprevention and treatment services," it added.
The 248-page study, an annual World Disasters Report, gaveno new figures for AIDS sufferers but cited United Nationsstatistics that 2.1 million died from the disease last year.
The Federation said the HIV virus was at the root of arolling social crisis across southern Africa.
Its officials told a news conference the recent violence inZimbabwe -- where until recently the battle against AIDS hadbenefited from a widespread treatment network -- could disruptmedical care and make that situation worse.
"We must not let what we have achieved be put intoreverse," Federation specialist Mukesh Kapila said. The body'sdeputy secretary general Ibrahim Osman said it would help theZimbabwe Red Cross double the HIV sufferers it supports to260,000.
The Federation said it centred its 2008 World DisastersReport on the immune-destroying disease rather than floods orearthquakes because for many communities the epidemic "isundoubtedly a disaster."
"Government services are overwhelmed by the need forsupport and treatment, stigma still prevents access for many,even where services exist, and communities are devastated byits effects," it said.
There were 405 natural disasters worldwide last year,compared to 423 in 2006, the Federation said. Those killed justunder 17,000 people, the lowest annual figure for a decade, butthe numbers affected rose by 40 percent to 201 million.
(Editing by Charles Dick)
