Five key groups, including gay men, prostitutes and prisoners, have stubbornly high rates of HIV that are threatening progress in the global AIDS battle, and need to be prioritized in plans to target the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 
 
 These people are most at risk of becoming infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, yet are least likely to get HIV prevention, testing and treatment services, the Geneva-based United Nations health agency said. 
 
 "Globally we are failing certain populations that have the greatest risk yet we know have universally poorer access to health services. These are men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender persons, specifically transgender women, persons who inject drugs and persons who are in prisons or other closed settings," Gottfried Hirnschall, director of the WHO's HIV department, told reporters at a briefing. 
 
 "We are seeing exploding epidemics in some of these key populations," he said, adding that these groups account for up to 50 percent of new cases of HIV infection. 
 
 The WHO said studies estimate that female sex workers are 14 times more likely to have HIV than other women, gay men are 19 times more likely to have HIV than the general population, and transgender women are almost 50 times more likely than other adults to have HIV. For intravenous drug users, the risks of HIV infection can be 50 times higher than the general population. 
 
 For the first time, the WHO said it "strongly recommends" that men who have sex with men should consider taking antiretroviral AIDS drugs as an extra way of protecting themselves against HIV infection, alongside using condoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a similar recommendation in May. 
 
 Such an approach, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, is a way for people who do not have HIV but are at risk of getting it to protect themselves by taking a single pill, usually a combination of two antiretrovirals, every day. 
 
 PrEP, when taken consistently, has been shown to cut the risk of HIV infection in high-risk populations by up to 92 percent. 
 
 "The reason that we are adding this to our prevention choices for men who have sex with men is that we have these very worrying increases in HIV incidence," said Rachel Baggaley, coordinator of the WHO's department for HIV/AIDS. 
 
 AIDS experts estimate that globally, HIV incidence among gay men could be cut by 20 to 25 percent through PrEP, averting up to 1 million new infections in this group over 10 years. 
 
 Some 35.3 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, but the rising number of patients reflects great strides in recent years in developing sophisticated HIV tests and combination AIDS drugs and getting them to many of those who need them to stay alive. 
 
 As a result, the annual AIDS death toll is falling, dropping to 1.6 million people in 2012 from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005. New HIV infections also declined by one-third in 2013 from 2011. 
 
 Yet figures show the key high-risk populations continue to have high infection rates, and appear to be hard to reach in terms of getting the right prevention messages, or getting them the testing and treatment health services they need. 
 
 Hirnschall said that in many countries, gay men, sex workers and other marginalized groups are left out of national HIV plans and excluded by discriminatory laws and policies. 
 
 "None of these people live in isolation," he warned. "Sex workers and their clients have husbands, wives and partners. Some inject drugs. Many have children. Failure to provide services to the people who are at greatest risk of HIV jeopardizes further progress against the global epidemic." 
 
 The WHO report, released ahead of the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, which begins on July 20, said that by the end of 2013, around 13 million people worldwide were taking AIDS drug treatment. This has led to a 20 percent drop in HIV-related deaths between 2009 and 2012, it said. 
 
 Reuters ||||| AFP / Diptendu Dutta 
 
 Indian volunteers and members of the West Bengal Voluntary Health Association (WBVHA) light candles in the shape of a red ribbon during the closing ceremony of an AIDS awareness campaign in Siliguri on December 2, 2013 
 
 HIV infections are rising among gay men in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization warned Friday, urging all men who have sex with men to take antiretroviral drugs to prevent infection. 
 
 "We are seeing exploding epidemics," warned Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads WHO's HIV department. 
 
 Infection rates are rising again among men who have sex with men -- the group at the epicentre of AIDS pandemic when it first emerged 33 years ago, he told reporters in Geneva. 
 
 While images of skeletal men dying of AIDS in the 1980s pushed the world to act, a younger generation that has grown up among new treatments that make it possible to live with HIV are less focused on the disease, he suggested. 
 
 Today, this group is 19 times more likely than the general population to be infected by HIV, Hirnschall said. 
 
 In Bangkok for instance, the incidence of HIV among men who have sex with men stands at 5.7 percent, compared to less than 1.0 percent for the overall population, he said. 
 
 AFP / Tony Karumba 
 
 A picture taken in Nairobi on May 9, 2013 shows a billboard promoting the use of condoms by a US-based Catholic group calling itself "Catholics for choice" 
 
 In its new recommendations for combatting the HIV/AIDS pandemic, published Friday, the UN health agency therefore for the first time "strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection". 
 
 US authorities made the same recommendation in May. 
 
 Taking pre-exposure prophylaxis medication, for instance as a single daily pill combining two antiretrovirals, in addition to using condoms, has been estimated to cut HIV incidence among such men by 20-25 percent, WHO said, stressing that this could avert "up to one million new infections among this group over 10 years". 
 
 The new guidelines also focus on other high-risk groups, pointing out that men who have sex with men, transgender people, prisoners, people who inject drugs and sex workers together account for about half of all new HIV infections worldwide. 
 
 - Putting overall progress at risk - 
 
 At the same time, they are often the very groups who have least access to healthcare services, with criminalisation and stigma often dissuading them from seeking help even when it is available. 
 
 AFP / Brendan Smialowski 
 
 A volunteer with AIDS Healthcare Foundation waits for cars to stop to hand out free condoms on May 24, 2013 in Washington 
 
 When people fear seeking health care services it "will inevitably lead to more infections in those communities," Rachel Baggaley, of the WHO's HIV department, told reporters. 
 
 Globally, transgender women and injecting drug users, for instance, are around 50 times more likely than the general population to contract HIV, while sex workers have a 14-fold higher chance of getting infected, WHO said. 
 
 The world has overall been making great strides in tackling HIV, with the number of new infections plunging by a third between 2001 and 2012, when 2.3 million people contracted the virus. 
 
 And by the end of 2013, some 13 million people with HIV were receiving antiretroviral treatment, dramatically reducing the number of people dying from AIDS. 
 
 "Progress is however uneven," Hirnschall said, warning that failing to address the still sky-high HIV incidence among certain groups was putting the overall battle against the deadly disease at risk. 
 
 Most countries focus the lion's share of their attention on fighting HIV infections among the general populations, paying relatively little attention to the most high-risk groups. 
 
 This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to 71 percent of the some 35.3 million people worldwide living with HIV, the expert said. 
 
 Hirnschall stressed that tackling infections among the most at risk should be a general concern. 
 
 "None of these people live in isolation," he said, pointing out that "sex workers and their clients have husbands, wives and partners. Some inject drugs. Many have children." 
 
 Decriminalising and destigmatising these groups would greatly help bring down HIV infections among them, WHO said. 
 
 Promoting condom use, wide-spread voluntary HIV testing, treating at-risk individuals with antiretrovirals, voluntary male circumcision and needle exchange programmes figure among the other WHO recommendations for battling the disease.
– HIV infections are "exploding" among gay men, according to the World Health Organization. In fact, the infection rates are so bad, the organization—for the first time—"strongly recommends men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral medicines as an additional method of preventing HIV infection," it announced today. Despite the attention drawn to HIV infections among gay men in the 1980s, WHO's HIV head tells AFP the younger generation is less focused on the disease when, in fact, gay men today are 19 times more likely to contract HIV than the general population. WHO notes that taking pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP—typically, two antiretrovirals combined into one daily pill—in addition to the use of condoms is estimated to cut HIV incidence among gay men by up to 25% or prevent "up to one million new infections among this group over 10 years." Al Jazeera America reports that when taken consistently, PrEP can cut the risk of HIV infection in high-risk groups with "universally poorer access to health services," including prostitutes and prisoners, by up to 92%. (In other news, a baby apparently "cured" of HIV has tested positive for the virus.)