Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 54 862 417 at 12.30pm on Thursday November 27 2003.
About 30% of people living with HIV/Aids worldwide live in Southern Africa, an area that is home to just 2% of the world’s population.
‘The most devastating social and economic impacts of Aids are still to come,” said Dr Peter Piot, UNAids executive director. ‘Widespread treatment access would substantially mitigate the devastating impact of HIV/Aids, which affects everything from agriculture to national defence. Effective HIV prevention programmes must be scaled up dramatically if we want a realistic chance at reducing the number of new infections.”
The epidemic is particularly devastating for women in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are more likely to be infected with HIV than men. Among young people this discrepancy is particularly high, with young women aged 15 to 24 up to 2,5 times more likely to be infected than young men in the same age group.
Source: UNAids