The spread of HIV and Aids among the heterosexual population is one of greatest health challenges in Latin America, according to a United Nations official.

A report published by the United Nations on Tuesday said that worldwide the number of people infected with the HIV virus was now thirty-three million, a rise of ten per cent in the past year.

In a BBC interview the official, Nina Forensic, said that Aids was now the first cause of death among young women in Sao Paulo in Brazil, while the rate of pregnant women becoming infected with the virus was increasing alarmingly in Brazil, Honduras, and the Caribbean.