Statistics on HIV/AIDS

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1. HIV/AIDS prevalence
2. HIV/AIDS as a cause of death
3. HIV/AIDS and life expectancy
4. HIV/AIDS domino effect
5. HIV/AIDS treatment

1. HIV/AIDS prevalence

Everyday, HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people. That’s more than 2 million a year. Another 8,200 people a day are infected with this deadly virus. Every minute, a young woman is infected. 6 in 10 people living with HIV in Africa are women. In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with aids worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children.

Fortunately, the epidemic seems to have peaked around 2005. In that year, 2.3m a year died because of AIDS. The number now stands at 1.7m a year.

(source)

New infections have also gone down. These have fallen from 2.6m in 1998 (the peak) to 1.8m in 2011. Reasons for this include changes in people’s sexual behaviour, such as reduced promiscuity and more frequent use of condoms; the spread of antiretroviral drugs which, in addition to saving the lives of those infected, also stop them passing the virus on; reductions in mother-to-child transmission; and a new fashion for circumcision amongst Africa’s men. Circumcision has been shown to be a particularly effective way of cutting transmission rates (source).

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(source, click image to enlarge)

And this is a map showing the evolution of new infections:

(source)

The number of people living with AIDS continues to rise, mainly because of the success of therapy:

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Over three-quarters of aids deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.

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From the Telegraph newspaper, the map of the world modified according to the number of people with HIV:

A similar type of map (each square equals 10,000 people):

(source)

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2. HIV/AIDS as a cause of death

AIDS has become the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa where approx. 1 in 4 deaths is caused by AIDS:

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3. HIV/AIDS and life expectancy

Obviously, life expectancy in many countries hardest hit by AIDS has fallen dramatically:

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4. HIV/AIDS domino effect

AIDS has also worsened some existing problems such as poverty, lack of education etc. It is estimated that 11.4 million AIDS orphans live in the region. Some predict that AIDS will even lead to national economic collapse. Ostracism, rejection and discrimination are other consequences. Homosexuals patients must now suffer a double stigma, their AIDS reinforcing the pre-existing prejudices against their homosexuality.

(source)

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5. HIV/AIDS treatment

In the 1990s in the US, AIDS became the leading cause of death in adults aged between 25 and 44, but the introduction of more effective drugs has reduced the mortality of the disease quite effectively:

(A) Annual AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa (population 640 million) compared with those in USA (population 273 million). (B) Deaths in the USA in more detail, showing the five leading causes of death in men and women 25–44 years old. Over the course of ten years, AIDS came to be the leading cause of death in this generally healthy age group. The sharp decline in mortality followed the introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy, although the prevalence of HIV infection has not decreased. (Data obtained from UNAIDS and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.). Robin A. Weiss

However, the same progress has not occurred in Africa because drugs are expensive and antiretroviral medication is not easily available. Efforts to prevent the infection from occurring, such as the promotion of safe sex and needle-exchange programs, encounter cultural or religious obstacles. As a result, we are turning what could be a manageable chronic illness into a death sentence for many, thereby also encouraging the spread of HIV to others.

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