"Youth and HIV/AIDS: Can We Avoid Catastrophe?", prepared by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University is a sweeping condemnation of the way government inaction and cultural mores have led to a huge leap in the number of AIDS cases worldwide.

Some 11.8 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS, compared with 10.3 million at the end of last year, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

The report cited the refusal of some Moslem countries to target AIDS information to men who have sex with men.

It said other high risk groups, including  drug users, homeless children, sex workers, and the poor are also ignored.

Unless immediate action is taken, the report warns, life expectancy in countries including Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe will fall to around 30 years by 2010.

"It may already be too late to avoid catastrophic numbers of AIDS deaths,'' said Hopkins researcher Karungari Kiragu. 

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