The 17th International AIDS conference opened on Sunday in Mexico City to try to find better ways to curb the spread of the disease. 25,000 scientists, doctors and government officials were in Mexico City for the event, with Former US President Bill Clinton due to attend on Monday. This is the first time the biennial conference is being held in Latin America and the event has been preceded by an awareness march, a photo exhibition and other events.

Since Aids first became known a quarter of a century ago, 25 million people have died, 33 million people worldwide are affected by the disease, while last year  2.1 million people died of AIDS, according to the UN.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says in Latin America, at least 500,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 are HIV carriers, which is a 5-percent increase over 2006 figures,

In the 33 million people in the worldwide suffering from HIV/AIDS, 5.5 percent are teenagers and young adults, with one third of them being Latin American. In Africa, with more than 70% of the cases, though access to relevant and required drugs is improving, health care workers to administer these medicines are inadequate.

Experts feel with detection methods improving, the figures could have been underestimated by about 30%.  According to BBC's Duncan Kennedy in some countries like Russia and China, and even Germany and the UK, infection rates are still rising and access to the right treatment is also an issue.

The silver lining in the otherwise dark cloud of disease was the figures released before the conference which showed an overall marginal decline in the number of people affected with the disease worldwide.  US spending on controlling the syndrome have been tripled after US President George W Bush recently won backing for the cause. Called Universal Action Now the conference will, run through Friday.