AIDS is out of control and threatening to wipe out 25 years of progress in some of the poorest nations," Patrick Dixon, founder of the international AIDS charity ACET (AIDS Care Education & Training) has said this week.

As World AIDS Day approaches on 1 December, the ACET founder has come out to say: "AIDS is destroying a generation of young people on which the future of these countries depend. In worst-hit towns and cities a family or office worker can expect to attend an AIDS funeral at least once a month.

"Every few seconds another young person becomes infected with HIV without realising it. Tens of millions of children face an uncertain future because their parents have died. Yet AIDS is 100 per cent preventable and it costs very little to save a life."

Dixon added, "We have seen in Uganda that AIDS can be beaten - with dramatic falls in infection rates from 22 per cent to 7 per cent over the last decade. But even Uganda is now seeing another rise - as a new generation of young people start taking risks. Meanwhile we are seeing rapid spread of HIV in India, Russia, Ukraine and China. We need a global response to AIDS on a scale never seen before."