back to top Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic
The history of HIV and AIDS is a short one. As recently as the 1970s, no one was aware of this deadly illness. Since then the global HIV/AIDS epidemic has become one of the greatest threats to human health and development. At the same time, much has been learnt about the science of HIV and AIDS, as well as how to prevent and treat the disease.
There is still no cure for HIV but HIV treatment has improved enormously since the mid-1990s. HIV-positive people who take a combination of three antiretroviral drugs can expect to recover their health and live for many years without developing AIDS, as long as they keep taking the drugs every day.
Statistics for the end of 2010 indicate that around 34 million people are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Each year around 2.7 million more people become infected with HIV and 1.8 million die of AIDS. Although HIV and AIDS are found in all parts of the world, some areas are more afflicted than others.
The worst affected region is sub-Saharan Africa, where in a few countries more than one in five adults is infected with HIV. The epidemic is spreading most rapidly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people living with HIV increased by 250 percent between 2001 and 2010. Many Western countries, such as the UK, have increasing rates of HIV transmission through heterosexual sex. In America, where more than a million people are living with HIV, heterosexual sex accounts for one third of new diagnoses.
Although it is known how to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS, few people have access to the necessary services. Most rich countries and eleven low- and middle-income countries, for example Botswana, Cambodia, Chile and Cuba, have achieved universal treatment access. But only 47 percent of people who need antiretroviral drugs across low- and middle-income countries are receiving them. Access to prevention tools such as HIV education, condoms, clean needles and programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission is inadequate. Figures show that in 2010, only 35 percent of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries were tested for HIV and an estimated 48 percent of pregnant women living with HIV were given the most effective antiretroviral regimens to prevent HIV transmission to their child.
This page leads you towards easy to access information about the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. Explore ‘HIV/AIDS Epidemic Topics’ to find out how HIV affects different groups of people, including prisoners, women and orphans; for an insight into regional and country approaches to HIV; and for a more detailed focus on major HIV and AIDS issues, including HIV and AIDS funding and HIV stigma and discrimination.