GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Shared needles are only a small portion of the AIDS problem in Africa, a new study sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS suggests.
The study investigates what impact risk factors such as unsafe sex, healthcare and intravenous drugs play in the epidemic, New Scientist reported Friday.
Some critics of the study believe older data that suggests between 20 and 40 percent of infections are passed on by needles, while WHO and UNAIDS say that accounts for a mere 2.5 percent of infections.
Currently the largest effort is put into combating transmission of the virus via unprotected sex. WHO scientists worry that the "safe sex" message will be undermined if too much attention is paid to injections, and they fear blaming injections might scare patients away from hospitals and vaccination programs.
"We do think the focus should remain on safe sex," says George Schmid, a senior HIV researcher with WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, who led the study.
