Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 44 379 909 onThursday November 29 2001
Mounting toll: The United Nations joint programme on HIV/Aids produced its 2001 update on the epidemic. It estimates that five million people became infected with HIV this year and that worldwide 40-million people are living with the virus. Three million people are expected to die as a result of the virus by the end of this year; the vast majority live in sub-Saharan Africa.
More than 20-million people are thought to have died in the two decades since the epidemic was identified. Worldwide, 1,2% of adults aged 15 to 49 years are living with HIV/Aids but this conceals huge regional variations, from 8,4% in sub-Saharan Africa to a mere 0,1% in Australia, New Zealand, East Asia and the Pacific. The report estimates that by the end of last year 12,1-million children had been orphaned by Aids, and that this would double over the next decade.
Holistic combat: The Department of Health said this week that 20 000 women had received counselling, testing and medication at the 18 pilot sites testing a programme to cut vertical transmission of HIV to their unborn babies. As part of the prevention campaign, more than 198-million condoms had been distributed during 1999, up from just six million in 1994.