GLOBAL PANDEMIC: A SNAPSHOT
Although AIDS has been with us for just 20 years, it is already killing more people than any other infectious disease. With over 33 million people infected worldwide (more than 95% of them in developing countries) and 16,000 new infections a day, the AIDS virus is:
- Spreading fast in most developing regions
- Outstripping efforts to contain it
- Reversing hard won gains of development
- Reducing life expectancy
- Growing rapidly among youth
- Increasing mortality in children under five
- Exacerbating tuberculosis (TB) and opportunistic infections
- Undermining investments in education and human resource development
- Decreasing agricultural production, savings and social capital
Infections among women are increasing rapidly, creating an unprecedented number of orphans who are imposing heavy tolls on health systems, communities and households.
Families in poor countries with high HIV prevalence are particularly vulnerable and suffer the greatest hardship. Households in Zambia and Uganda, for example, have suffered sustained economic decline as a result of HIV, both in rural and urban areas. Communities and households in countries with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS have made significant structural changes in order to cope with the illness and death of significant family members and to take over the care and support of orphaned children.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit:
- 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have adult HIV infection rates over 10% - in Botswana and Zimbabwe, 25% of young adults are HIV-positive.
- 70% of HIV-positive women are aged 15-24. In two African cities - Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia - 20% of girls aged 15-19 are HIV-positive.
- In Cote d’Ivoire, a teacher dies of AIDS every day.
- 55% of HIV-positive adults in sub-Saharan Africa are women.
- In Uganda 40% of military personnel are infected.
HIV is gaining strength in other developing regions:
- Latin America and the Caribbean have among the highest infection rates outside Africa.
- Since 1994, HIV prevalence in much of Asia and the Pacific has increased by over 100% - in India and China, the world’s two most populous countries, infections are growing dramatically.
- Women account for 45% of all adults infected, up from 25% just 7 years ago.
- In South and Southeast Asia, HIV/AIDS has already killed more than 1 million people.
- In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 50% of people living with HIV/AIDS were infected during the last 2 years.
