Global AIDS Statistics 2005

• At the end of 2004, an estimated 39.4 million people had HIV
• 4.9 million people were infected with HIV in 2004 and 3.1 million people died from Aids-related illness
• The number of new cases diagnosed in East Asia rose by almost 50 per cent between 2002 and 2004, due mostly to China's rapidly growing epidemic.
• In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, diagnoses rates were up by 40 per cent between 2002 and 2004, mainly because of increases in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
• Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the worst affected region, with 25.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2004, up from 24.4 million in 2002.
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of all HIV infections worldwide. Three-quarters (76 per cent) of all the women living with HIV live there.

Source: Terrence Higgins Trust.

AIDS & Youth

The news coming out of the 14th Annual International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, is grim.

The Kaiser Foundation and the United States C.D.C released a frightening report entitled: "The Global Impact of HIV/AIDS on Youth," projecting a 70% increase over the next 7 years of young people, ages 15 to 24, living with HIV/AIDS--an increase from 12.4 million to 21.5 million by the end of the decade.

The report, notes that of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS today, some 38% are under the age of 25, with 60% of the 5 million new infections each year occurring in the same age group.

Some other disturbing findings of the study are:

• In the 50 most highly-affected countries, 59% of the 26.7 million deaths which will occur by the end of this decade will be among young women, between the ages of 20-34.
• Life expectancy in hard hit countries like Botswana and Mozambique could drop below age 30.
• UNICEF reports that in more than a dozen countries over half the young people had never heard of AIDS.

Surveys in 17 countries found that one in two adolescents could not name a single method of protecting themselves from HIV infection (with young girls knowing less than boys in all instances);

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has estimated that as many as 44 million children will be orphaned by AIDS by 2010--an astounding increase from the present levels of 13.2 million AIDS orphans worldwide.

The Kaiser study--and the CDC study released earlier in the week which detailed the devastatingly high percentage of young men in the United States (age 16 to 29)infected with HIV but unaware of their status--is the overwhelming need for more awareness, prevention and education programs.