Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Highest HIV Infection is in South Africa

A United Nations report released today says that South Africa is the country with the highest number of HIV infected people in the world.

The UNAIDS report states the following about subsharan Africa:
*Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region. Some 1.7 million [1.4 million-2.4 million] people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million [20.9 million-24.3 million] the total number of people living with the virus. Unlike other regions, the majority of people (61%) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

* More than two-thirds (68%) of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa where more than three quarters (76%) of all AIDS-related deaths in 2007 occurred.

* Within the region, Southern Africa is worst-affected – national adult HIV prevalence exceeded 15% in eight Southern African countries in 20051.

* South Africa is the country in the world with the most HIV infections, but like most of the countries in Southern, East and West Africa adult HIV prevalence is either stable or has started to decline. The latter trend is most evident in Kenya and Zimbabwe, and signs of declining HIV prevalence are also being seen in the Ivory Coast, Mali and urban Burkina Faso. In these countries there is also evidence of
a shift towards safer behaviour.

Previous to this 2007 report, India was considered to be the country with the highest HIV infection in the world.

The South African government says that out of the 48 million citizens about 5.5 million people have HIV.

See a News24 report here.

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