HIV/AIDS and society

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region in the global AIDS epidemic. More than two out of three (68%) adults and nearly 90% of children infected with HIV live in this region, and more than three in four (76%) AIDS deaths in 2007 occurred there. It is estimated that 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million the total number of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS 2007). The scale and trends of the epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa vary considerably, with southern Africa most seriously affected. National adult HIV prevalence exceeded 15% in eight countries in 2005 (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe). According to the latest UNAIDS estimates, this subregion accounts for almost one third (32%) of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths globally in 2007 (UNAIDS 2007). South Africa is still the country with the largest number of HIV infections in the world with an estimated 5.4 million people living with HIV in 2006 (Department of Health South Africa, 2007).