Source: UNAIDS

In this section, statistics on:

Overview of HIV

Prevention

Regions

Women's Rights

Young People

Religion

Overview

• Just under half of all people living with HIV are female
• Worldwide, 17.3 million women aged 15 years and older are living with HIV
• 74% young people aged 15–24 years living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female
• Since 1985, the percentage of adult women living with HIV has risen from 35% to 48 %
• Young women are 1.6 times more likely to be living with HIV than young men
• Women and girls make up almost 60% of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa
• 76% of all HIV positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa, where women comprise 59% of adults living with HIV
• Adult women in sub-Saharan Africa are 1.3 times more likely to be infected with HIV than their male counterparts
• Young women (15-24 years old) in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are 3-6 times more likely to be infected than young men
• Women represent 36% of the 1.7 million adults living with HIV in Latin America
• Russia has the biggest increase of women diagnosed with HIV from 24% in 2001 to 38% in 2003
• In East Asia, women comprise 22% of all adults living with HIV, young people 28%

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Prevention

Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centers (VCT)

• in sub-Saharan Africa VCTs are only available to 12% of people who want to be tested

Condoms

• 90% effective with a high range of about 96% effectiveness
• Less than half of all people at risk of HIV infection are able to obtain condoms
• Only 4.9% of married women of reproductive age use condoms

Female condoms

• 64 million female condoms have been distributed in over 100 countries
• 97% effective

Microbicides

• gel or cream that can be applied topically to the vagina in much the same way as today's spermicides
• undergoing research, two types to be developed one that prevents both pregnancy and HIV transmission and the other to act against the HIV virus only

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Regions

• Kenya (end of 2003)
• 1.2 million adults and children living with HIV
• million adults ages 15-49 living with HIV
• 100,000 children ages 0-15 living with HIV
• 720,000 women living with HIV
• 150,000 estimated number of deaths due to AIDS
• 650,000 estimated number of orphans due to AIDS

Sub-Saharan Africa (2004)

• 25.4 million adults and children living with HIV
• 13.3 million women living with HIV
• 3.1 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 2.3 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Caribbean (2004)

• 440,000 adults and children living with HIV
• 210,000 women living with HIV
• 53,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 36,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Asia (2004)

• 8.2 million adults and children living with HIV
• 2.3 million women living with HIV
• 1.2 million adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 540,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Eastern Europe (2004)

• 1.4 million adults and children living with HIV
• 490,000 women living with HIV
• 210,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 60,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Latin America (2004)

• 1.7 million adults and children living with HIV
• 610,000 women living with HIV
• 240,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 95,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Oceania (2004)

• 35,000 adults and children living with HIV
• 7,100 women living with HIV
• 5,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 700 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

Middle East and North Africa (2004)

• 540,000 adults and children living with HIV
• 250,000 women living with HIV
• 92,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 28,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

North America, Western and Central Europe (2004)

• 1.6 million adults and children living with HIV
• 420,000 women living with HIV
• 64,000 adults and children newly infected with HIV
• 23,000 adult and child deaths due to AIDS

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Women’s Rights

Harmful practices

• 82 million girls, generally from poor families, will marry before they turn 18 and will be more likely to become infected than their peers who are not married.
• Female Genital Cutting may also increase the likelihood of girls and women becoming infected.
• ‘Widow cleansing’, practiced in Africa and Asia, involves a widow having sexual relations either with a designated village cleanser or with a relative of her late husband.

Freedom from discrimination

• In Sub-Sharan Africa, majority of HIV positive women have difficulties with their in-laws over property
• 88% of women in rural areas were unable to meet their household needs
• 37% of widows in Uganda migrated from their homes because they were not entitled to their late husbands property
• In sub-Saharan African, the 2003 Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa was added to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, thanks to lobbying by several advocates
• 1999 Rwanda Inheritance Law is an effort to give widows the right to inherit their deceased husband’s property and granting inheritance rights to male and female children

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Young People

• Young people need life skills such as decision-making, communication and negotiation. They need to understand the consequences behind unprotected sex and the use of alcohol and drugs and how to make informed decisions
• One of the most effective approaches to sex and health education in schools is the use of role-playing to personalize issues and peer education
• Peer education is one of the most effective strategies to reach out-of-school youth, which involves training representatives among out-of-school youth to convey information

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Religion

• A recent study by the World Health Organisation (2007) reveals that Faith Based Organisations play a crucial role in HIV and AIDS treatment, care and support
• Religious organizations have for two decades cared for people living with HIV in various ways, both at hospitals and in the communities. Religious organizations are also part of coping mechanisms in hard-hit communities.

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Useful Links:

• UNAIDS HIV Data
• UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2006