Havana, November 24 (RHC) - The United Nations office of AIDS/HIV education and prevention UNAIDS recognised the low infection rates in Cuba in a report published Wednesday and praised the island as the exception in the Caribbean area where 63 000 people currently live with the disease.

The UN office suggested that Cuba's low rate of AIDS infection was at least partly due to the policy implemented in the 1980s of accommodating infected people in specialized sanatoriums and subsequent treatment with anti-retroviral medicines.

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health stated that HIV infection is highest in people aged between 35 and 44 years. This is in contrast to global trends where the under-30s are the most infected group, with severe implications for birth rates and infection from mothers to babies.

The worst affected area of the world is Sub-Saharan Africa where more than 2.5 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2003 and 26 million people currently live with the disease. This coming world AIDS day on December 1st will be specially dedicated to female sufferers.