The following figures were reported in a fact sheet released July 2 by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

• 93% of all children with HIV/AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• 430,000 children died of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa in 1997.

• By the end of the year 2000, a cumulative total of 13 million children -- the majority in Africa, will have lost one of both parents to AIDS.

• Approximately 3.5 million Africans became infected in 2001, bringing the total number of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in this region to 28.5 million. The estimated number of children orphaned by AIDS living in the region is 11 million.

• Some 2.2 million Africans died of AIDS in 2001. It is projected that, between 2000 and 2020, 55 million Africans will die earlier than they would have in the absence of AIDS. (These projections are based on the assumption that prevention, treatment and care programmes will have a modest effect on the growth and impact of the epidemic in the next two decades.)

• The epidemic's toll continues to mount, even in countries already experiencing very high HIV prevalence rates. The number of AIDS-related deaths among young adults in South Africa, for example, is expected to peak in 2010-2015, when it is estimated that there will be more than 17 times as many deaths among persons aged 15-34 as there would have been without AIDS.

• At least 10% of those aged 15-49 are infected in 12 African countries. Seven countries, all in southern Africa, now have prevalence rates higher than 20%: Botswana (38.8%), Lesotho (31%), Namibia (22.5%), South Africa (20.1%), Swaziland (33.4%), Zambia (21.5%) and Zimbabwe (33.7%).

• About 11 million African children alive at the end of 2001 had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Close to a million children younger than 15 years have been orphaned by AIDS in Ethiopia and in Nigeria. In South Africa, an estimated 660,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.

• Women account for the majority of persons living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa (58%). Young women, in particular, have consistently been found to have higher prevalence rates than men in the same age group. (In Kisumu, Kenya, for example, in 1998, the prevalence of HIV infection among women aged 15-29 was 23%, while, in young men, it was 3.5%).

• There was hope that southern Africa's epidemic -- the most severe in the world -- had reached its 'natural limit', beyond which HIV prevalence rates would not rise. New data show that this is not the case, however. In Botswana, median HIV prevalence among pregnant women in urban areas rose from 38.5% in 1997 to 44.9% in 2001, while, in Zimbabwe, it climbed from 29% in 1997 to 35% in 2000. Prevalence rates are even higher among specific age groups -- as high as 55.6% among 25-29-year-old women attending antenatal clinics in urban areas of Botswana.

• In west and central Africa, new data confirm how suddenly the epidemic can explode. In Cameroon's urban areas, HIV prevalence rose from 2% in 1988 to 4.7% in 1996. But HIV surveillance for 2000 found national prevalence rates of 11% among pregnant women. The highest HIV prevalence rates were found among young people -- 11.5% among 15-19-year-old pregnant women and 12.2% among those aged 20-24 -- an indication that this may be the beginning of an ongoing, steep rise.

• These data raise strong concerns about the course of the epidemic in other countries -- for example, Nigeria, the most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa (with 117 million people). Until recently, Nigeria's national prevalence rates remained relatively low (as was the case for neighbouring Cameroon), although growing slowly from 1.9% in 1993 to 5.8% in 2001. But some states in Nigeria are already experiencing HIV prevalence rates as high as those now found in Cameroon. Already, 3.5 million Nigerians are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.

• Uganda remains the only country to have subdued a major HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the adult HIV prevalence rate continuing to drop -- from 8.3% at the end of 1999 to 5% at the end of 2001. Huge challenges persist, however, such as taking care of the 880,000 Ugandan children who have been orphaned by AIDS.

• There are some signs that Zambia could eventually match Uganda's success. HIV prevalence among 15-29-year-old urban women declined from 28.3% in 1996 to 24.1% in 1999. A similar decline was noted among rural women aged 15-24, where prevalence fell from 16.1% to 12.2% in the same period. But, like other countries in the region, Zambia has a long way to go before bringing the epidemic under control: national adult prevalence was 21.5% at the end of 2001.

• Even though one-in-nine South Africans (about 5 million) are living with HIV/AIDS, the country's large-scale prevention programmes (including information campaigns and condom distribution efforts) appear to be bearing fruit. In recent surveys, approximately 55% of sexually active teenage girls reported they always used condoms during sex.

• The rise of HIV prevalence in conflict zones is a growing concern, as the massive displacement of people and the disruption of social and governance systems increases the population's vulnerability. In Angola, for instance, the prevalence rates of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the capital of Luanda climbed from 1.2% in 1995 to 8.6% in 2001.

• There is cause to fear a similar trend in the Great Lakes region. While war and other hindrances make accurate surveillance data collection there difficult, the massive displacement of people, and the disruption of social and governance systems are worsening the vulnerability of huge numbers of people. An upward trend such as that now evident in parts of Angola cannot be ruled out in, for example, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

   

AAPCI / Africa Accomplishments Donate To AAPCI/AFRICA HIV Testing in sub-Saharan Africa HIV Hotlines / Support Groups Africa & World HIV Statistics I Am Newly Diagnosed Understanding HIV/AIDS HIV Rumors and Myths

Click here to access our entire resource directory.