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World AIDS Day

The Global Scourge of AIDS

Cases of HIV infection are not evenly distributed around the world. In the industrialized world, an estimated 1.95 million people are infected with HIV. Early prevention campaigns in the 80’s slowed the progression of the disease in the industrialized world, and the development of antiretroviral drugs has helped ease the suffering of AIDS victims. But a recent reduction in prevention efforts has led to staggering new levels of annual infections. In 1998 alone, HIV infected 75,000 people in the industrialized world.

In Latin America, nearly every country in the continent now reports HIV infections – an estimated 1.4 million people are infected with HIV. AIDS is on the rise among women, poor and undereducated groups and those that inject illicit drugs. Several countries in Latin America are attempting to ensure care for people living with HIV and AIDS, including providing life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs. Access to care, although better than in other areas of the developing world, remains patchy overall.

In Asia, an estimated 7.26 million people are infected with HIV. Although, the disease did not arrive in Asia until the late 80s and early 90s, this region now accounts for 20% of all infections worldwide. There is increased worry that an explosion in the epidemic may occur in China and India. In India, there area already over 4 million people infected. This is the largest number of infected people in a single country.

In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union an estimated 270,000 people are infected. Until a few years ago, cases of HIV infection in that region were very limited. With the crumbling of social and economic structures, HIV is rapidly spreading through the use of drugs and prostitution. Since 1994, infection rates have tripled.

Of all regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has been hardest hit. This long-suffering region now has an estimated 22.5 million people infected with HIV. The AIDS epidemic is entering its third decade in sub-Saharan Africa, and while some countries in this region have had success in reining in the spread of the disease, in many areas infection rates are out of control. AIDS has become the leading killer in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1998 alone, 2 million people died of the disease and millions were infected. In the most severely affected countries in Africa (also in the world), the AIDS epidemic has infected 10% of the population, and the life expectancy of a child born between 2000 and 2005 has fallen from 60 years to 43 years.