Epidemiology




HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. As of 2016update approximately 36.7 million people worldwide have HIV, the number of new infections that year being about 1.8 million. This is down from 3.1 million new infections in 2001. Slightly over half the infected population are women and 2.1 million are children. It resulted in about 1 million deaths in 2016, down from a peak of 1.9 million in 2005.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected. In 2010, an estimated 68% (22.9 million) of all HIV cases and 66% of all deaths (1.2 million) occurred in this region. This means that about 5% of the adult population is infected and it is believed to be the cause of 10% of all deaths in children. Here, in contrast to other regions, women comprise nearly 60% of cases. South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world at 5.9 million. Life expectancy has fallen in the worst-affected countries due to HIV/AIDS; for example, in 2006 it was estimated that it had dropped from 65 to 35 years in Botswana. Mother-to-child transmission in Botswana and South Africa, as of 2013update, has decreased to less than 5%, with improvement in many other African nations due to improved access to antiretroviral therapy.

South & South East Asia is the second most affected; in 2010 this region contained an estimated 4 million cases or 12% of all people living with HIV resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths. Approximately 2.4 million of these cases are in India.

During 2008 in the United States approximately 1.2 million people were living with HIV, resulting in about 17,500 deaths. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that in that year, 20% of infected Americans were unaware of their infection. As of 2016update about 675,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS in the US since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. In the United Kingdom as of 2015update, there were approximately 101,200 cases which resulted in 594 deaths. In Canada as of 2008, there were about 65,000 cases causing 53 deaths. Between the first recognition of AIDS (in 1981) and 2009, it has led to nearly 30 million deaths. Rates of HIV are lowest in North Africa and the Middle East (0.1% or less), East Asia (0.1%), and Western and Central Europe (0.2%). The worst-affected European countries, in 2009 and 2012 estimates, are Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Portugal and Belarus, in decreasing order of prevalence.

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