Scope of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic

HIV infection and AIDS are among the most pressing concerns facing health providers worldwide. Although the impact of HIV/AIDS is serious in both developed and developing countries, it is most profound in the developing world, where resources to prevent, diagnose, and manage HIV infection are scarce.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that more than 40 million men, women, and children worldwide are now living with HIV/AIDS, of which 28 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, 1 in 10 adults ages 15 to 49 is living with the virus, and in seven countries more than 20% of the population is infected. Women, especially young women, are becoming infected at alarmingly increasing rates. A great many infected people do not know they carry HIV and so may be spreading the virus to others unknowingly.

This global epidemic is now far more extensive than was predicted even a decade ago, and the challenges that HIV poses vary enormously from region to region. Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 21 million people, and it has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the world’s leading cause of death by infectious disease among adults. AIDS is now the fourth leading cause of death among adults worldwide, and more than 13 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic.

A host of economic, political, social, and cultural factors play a critical role in determining how quickly the epidemic spreads within a particular region and whether communities and countries are able to rally the resources needed to combat HIV/AIDS.

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