Cambodia's rapid economic growth means businesses are having a greater impact on communities than donor-based programs. The country's more than 300,000 garment workers are considered at high risk for HIV, since many of them are young women who come from rural areas where prevention programs are lacking.

In addition, the country's high HIV rate has prompted men to seek out girlfriends instead of prostitutes. While these relationships are rarely exclusive, the girlfriends are less likely to insist on using condoms with men they feel they know.

At the US-Taiwan jointly owned Interhope factory, Bun Rany told the more than 1,000, mostly female workers: "Don't bring AIDS home. If the wife is affected, the children are affected too." "Most problems are caused when we forget AIDS, but AIDS never forgets us," she said.

The ads, which will appear in print and on public transit, feature black-and-white photos of celebrities asking a question that begins, "If I were HIV-positive…"

"If I were HIV-positive, would I be offered the leading role in a movie?" asks actor Daniel Wu. "If I were HIV-positive, would my cartoons still make you laugh?" asks cartoonist Alice Mak. The ads' text is written in the local dialect.

"People are afraid of being labeled and isolated," said campaign organizer Loretta Wong of AIDS Concern, a non-governmental group. "Many of us are ignorant about the disease, and some think they can be infected through shaking hands or having a meal together" with an HIV-positive person, she said. Such prejudice, she noted, is itself a health threat because "people are scared to get tested or even seek treatment and that could help spread the disease."

AIDS Concern hopes to broaden the campaign to include educational settings as well.

The message from Nelson Mandela, former South African president and anti-apartheid activist, reads: "Today, especially in Africa, AIDS is claiming as many lives as all the wars, famines and floods that have ravaged the continent. It is devastating families and communities, overwhelming and depleting health care services, and robbing schools of both students and teachers. This is not a disease anymore, it's a human rights issue." Mandela's note ends with an appeal for donations to his foundation's 46664 AIDS charity.

South Africa has the world's largest HIV burden, with an estimated 5.4 million people living with the disease.

CDC recommends that all pregnant women receiving prenatal care be tested for HIV using an opt-out approach, in which the patient is provided with information on HIV and told that a test will be conducted as part of other standard testing unless she declines.

Dr. Jay Schulkin and colleagues sent out 1,032 questionnaires, of which 582 were returned. All but 3 percent of OB/GYNs reported they recommend HIV testing, although nearly three-quarters considered 5 percent or fewer of their patients to be at high risk for HIV. Just over half (57 percent) reported using the testing approach appropriate for their states, while 43 percent reported using an approach not consistent with their state's guidelines. Almost one-third of the OB/GYNs said they did not know whether their state required HIV testing during pregnancy.

OB/GYNs were about evenly divided as to which testing approach they used, with 52 percent using the opt-in method and 48 percent reporting the opt-out approach. Most provided pre-test counseling (73.7) and post-test counseling (84.6 percent).

"The results of this study suggest that [OB/GYNs] may benefit from additional information that could improve their knowledge and practice regarding HIV screening," the researchers said. "Although most respondents report being at least moderately knowledgeable about HIV during pregnancy and report recommending HIV testing to all pregnant patients, they may need to be more aggressive in following up with patients who decline HIV testing," they concluded.

The study, "Obstetrician-Gynecologists' Knowledge and Practice Regarding Human Immunodeficiency Virus Screening," was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2007;110:1019-1026).

The accusation that UNAIDS deliberately inflated earlier estimates is "absurd," Dr. Paul De Lay, UNAIDS' director of monitoring and policy, replied at a news conference. The agency's task is to give advice and monitor trends, and its budget does not come from international aid spent on AIDS drugs or vaccine research, he said. In addition, he said, "cooking this data would be almost impossible," as the data are assembled by health ministries in each country and overseen by several agencies.

The revised estimates stem from newer, more accurate data from India and several African countries gathered through expensive, time-consuming household surveys. The earlier, higher estimates relied heavily on testing data from women attending urban health clinics.

It was not clear the earlier estimates were probably too high until late 2003, said Dr. Kevin M. De Cock, director of HIV/AIDS for the World Health Organization. The largest revision downward followed the July release of new data from India, he added.

A less noted aspect of the UNAIDS report is the longer life-expectancy estimated for HIV-positive people receiving no antiretroviral drugs. The old estimate of nine years, based on a Ugandan study conducted in the 1990s, has now increased to 11 years due to findings from several studies that will soon be published, said Dr. Peter Ghys, UNAIDS' chief of epidemiology. The impact of this was to lower assumptions about how many people were infected each year, Ghys said. UNAIDS then concluded that new infections peaked between 1997 and 2001. However, this revision did not radically change the estimated scale of the global epidemic, he said.

An earlier probe determined the doctor had contaminated multidose medicine vials by reusing syringes between 2000 and 2005. The investigation was broadened, however, after the department received a number of calls from former patients who said they had received injections from the doctor before 2000.

The department has already sent notification letters to 628 patients treated between 2000 and 2005. Department spokesperson Claudia Hutton said the agency does not know how many more patients may have received injections, "and that's the real problem. At this point, we figure letting the public know is the best way to get patients in touch with us quickly."

A statement from state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines said, "We now advise that all patients who believe they received an injection before Jan. 15, 2005, from Dr. Harvey Finkelstein" at Pain Care of Long Island in Plainview or Island Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Center in Massapequa "should be tested for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV."

Patients who have not been contacted by mail are asked to call the Health Department at 800-278-2965 to request an information packet.