AIDS CASES HIT 1.64 MILLION WORLDWIDEWHO

GENEVA (AP) The number of people with fullblown AIDS has hit 1.64
million and is growing steadily at almost 20 per cent a year, the UN
health agency said Friday in its annual report.
The World Health Organization did not say how many people have died of
AIDS since 1983, when it began collecting figures. It also did not give an
estimate of the number of people infected with the virus who have yet to
come down with the disease.
The official count is just a fraction of those believed actually to have
AIDS. Last year's figure represented an 18 per cent increase over the 1995
total, WHO said.