How Many People In The World Are Hiv Positive

How Have Deaths From Hiv/aids Changed Over Time

Global deaths from HIV/AIDS halved within a decade

The world has made significant progress against HIV/AIDS. Global deaths from AIDS have halved over the past decade.

In the visualization we see the global number of deaths from HIV/AIDS in recent decades this is shown by age group. In the early 2000s 2004 to 2005 global deaths reached their peak at almost 2 million per year.

Driven mostly by the development and availability of antiretroviral therapy , global deaths have halved since then. In 2017, just under one million died from the disease.

You can explore this change for any country or region using the change country toggle on the interactive chart.

HIV/AIDS once accounted for more than 1-in-3 deaths in some countries, but rates are now falling

Global progress on HIV/AIDS has been driven by large improvements in countries which were most affected by the HIV epidemic.

Today the share of deaths remains high: more than 1-in-4 deaths in some countries are caused by HIV/AIDS. But in the past this share was even higher.In the visualization we see the change in the share of deaths from HIV/AIDS over time. From the 1990s through to the early 2000s, it was the cause of greater than 1-in-3 deaths in several countries. In Zimbabwe, it accounted for more than half of annual deaths in the late 1990s.

We see that over the past decade this share has fallen as antiretoviral treatment has become more widely available.

Children living with HIV

New HIV infections of children

Hiv Statistics By State 2022

Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that weakens a persons immune system by attacking cells that fight off infection, specifically a persons CD4 cells. HIV is spread through body fluids such as blood. If HIV goes untreated and advances, it can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. Unlike most other viruses, when a person contracts HIV, they have it for life because the human body cannot fight off the virus entirely. HIV, however, can be controlled and its progression can be slowed significantly. There are three stages of HIV: acute HIV infection, clinical latency , and AIDS.

Countries With The Highest Rates Of Hiv/aids

Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that weakens the human immune system, sometimes leading to AIDS. If detected early, HIV can be managed to prevent it from progressing to the final stage of AIDS. HIV attacks CD4 cells exposing the infected person to opportunistic infections. Proper diagnosis, treatment, and medical care are essential factors to effective management and control of AIDS which has no permanent cure. While HIV is majorly a sexually transmitted disease, the virus can be transmitted through blood transfusion and during birth or breastfeeding, as well as through a few other means.

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Hiv Prevention Programmes In South Africa

South Africa aims to reduce the annual number of new infections to under 100,000 by 2022.73

The government plans to achieve this by intensifying prevention efforts in the 27 districts that account for 82% of all people living with HIV and for the majority of new infections. It has also committed to achieving zero new infections due to mother-to-child transmission by 2022.74

In addition, the 2017-2022 South African National LGBTI HIV Plan commits to reaching 95% of people from the LGBTI community with HIV prevention and ensuring 90% of LGBTI people living with HIV know their status.75

A number of South Africas HIV prevention strategies being implemented to reach these targets are outlined below.

Hiv Facts And Statistics: What You Need To Know

• Frequently Asked Questions

The very first cases of a disease that would later become known as AIDS were first reported in the United States in 1981. Two years later, the virus that would be called human immunodeficiency virus was discovered.

Since the beginning of what would eventually become a global pandemic, HIV has claimed the lives of over 675,000 people in the United States. Despite major advances in treatment and prevention, infections and deaths continue, particularly among vulnerable populations.

This article takes an in-depth look at current HIV statistics in the United States, including the groups disproportionately affected by the disease and the various factors that contribute to the prevalence.

klebercordeiro / Getty Images

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List Of Countries By Hiv/aids Adult Prevalence Rate

The human immunodeficiency virus , which causes AIDS, varies in prevalence from nation to nation. Listed here are the prevalence rates among adults in various countries, based on data from various sources, largely the CIA World Factbook.

As of 2018, 38 million people are estimated infected with HIV globally.

The HIV pandemic is most severe in Southern Africa. Over 10% of all people infected with HIV/AIDS reside within the region. Adult HIV prevalence exceeds 15% in Eswatini, Botswana, and Lesotho, while an additional six countries report adult HIV prevalence of at least 10%. Outside Africa, the highest prevalence rate is found in the Bahamas .

In absolute numbers, South Africa , followed by Mozambique , India and Nigeria had the highest HIV/AIDS number of cases by the end of 2022. While South Africa’s large population of HIV-positive people is attributable to its high disease prevalence , Nigeria’s is lower at 1.3%, with India’s prevalence rate at 0.2%. However, countries such as Nigeria with high HIV rates above 1% are classified as having Generalized HIV Epidemics by UNAIDS, while India’s prevalence is well below this threshold, with a prevalence lower than the US’s and about the same as Spain.

The Fall In New Infections Is Due To A Combination Of Several Factors

Prevention efforts, particularly those focused on changes in sexual behavior, such as condom use, later sexual debut, and reducing the number of sexual partners, have played an important role in limiting new infections. The increase in number of infected persons receiving antiretroviral treatment has also been important in controlling sexual transmission of the virus . In addition, male circumcision, now practiced in countries with extremely high prevalence rates where few men were circumcised traditionally, has proven effective in reducing woman-to-man transmission.

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Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision

In 2010, research emerged from sub-Saharan Africa suggesting that voluntary medical male circumcision can reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission by up to 60%.89 This led the South African government to rapidly roll out a national VMMC programme, which aimed to reach 80% of HIV-negative men by 2016.

However, this target has been missed. In 2017 around 32% of adult men were estimated to have been medically circumcised. The highest proportion of circumcisions have been carried out on young men , with 43% undergoing VMMC.90

Despite being off-target, South Africa is continuing to increase the number of circumcisions. In 2018 more than 572,000 circumcisions were performed, compared to 485,500 in 2015.91 Across the country the VMMC programme has mostly been well received with 78% of women preferring their partner to be circumcised, according to the 2011 youth sex survey.92

Hiv And Tuberculosis In South Africa

South Africa has the worldâs sixth largest tuberculosis epidemic, and the disease is the leading cause of death in the country.120 South Africas HIV epidemic fuels the TB epidemic because people living with HIV are at a far higher risk of developing TB due to weakened immune systems. It is estimated that 60% of people living with HIV in South Africa are also co-infected with TB. In 2017 there were 193,000 new cases of TB among people living with HIV and 56,000 people living with HIV died due to a TB-related illness.121

In light of this, the South African National AIDS council combined the HIV and STI strategy with the national TB strategy to improve the integration of these two services. One of the aims of this strategy is to get more people living with HIV on isoniazid preventative therapy , a preventative medicine for TB.122 But as of 2017, only around half of people living with HIV in the country had access to IPT.123

The TB treatment success rate has improved in recent years, and stood at 83% in 2016.124

We cannot fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB.

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The Status Of The Hiv/aids Epidemic In Sub

Senior Fellow, Futures Group International

Focus Area

Despite the fact that sub-Saharan Africa contains only about 11 percent of the Earths population, the region is the worlds epicenter of HIV/AIDS. The numbers are daunting. Adult HIV prevalence is 1.2 percent worldwide , but it is 9.0 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. UNAIDS estimates that at the end of 2001, there were 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 28.5 million of them from sub-Saharan African. Five million adults and children became newly infected with HIV in 2001, 3.5 million of them from sub-Saharan Africa. Three million people died from AIDS-related causes in 2001, and 2.2 million of these deaths were among sub-Saharan Africans.2

AIDS is now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy at birth has plummeted in many African countries, wiping out the gains made since independence. The combination of high birth rates and high AIDS mortality among adults, including many parents, has meant that more than 90 percent of children who have been orphaned as a consequence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are in this region.2

According to UNAIDS, all the worst affected countries are contiguous to one another in the lower part of the continent. These include South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe have prevalence rates above 30 percent.4

References

Hiv Rates By Country 2021

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus that is spread through certain body fluids, such as blood, and weakens a persons immune system by attacking cells that help fight off infection, specifically the CD4 cells. If HIV advances, it can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, if not treated.

Unlike most other viruses, the human body cannot fight off HIV completely therefore, once it is contracted, the individual has it for life. Luckily, it can be controlled and its progression can be slowed significantly. There are three stages of HIV:

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Hiv/aids In The World

• During the last two years of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress in prevention and treatment has diminished to the point where urgent action is needed to address the inequalities driving AIDS and prevent millions of new HIV acquisitions and millions of AIDS-related deaths.
• In 2021, 1.5 million individuals newly acquired HIV, bringing the global total to 38.4 million people living with HIV . While 85% of PLWH were aware of their status in 2021, approximately 5.9 million people did not know they were living with HIV.

New acquisitions

• New HIV acquisitions declined only 3.6% in 2021 compared to 2020, the smallest annual decrease since 2016. Overall, new infections have decreased by 54% since the peak in 1996.
• UNAIDS points out that, if not stalled, the current rate of HIV infection4,100 people, including 1,100 young people, every daywill result in 1.2 million newly infected people in 2025, tripling the target that UNAIDS has set for that year.

AIDS-related deaths

• Annual deaths from AIDS-related causes dropped from 680,000 in 2020 to 650,000 in 2021. However, the number translates into one death every minute.
• Since the beginning of the pandemic, 84.2 million people have acquired HIV and 40.1 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses.
• Since 2010, AIDS-related deaths have declined by 57% among women and girls and by 47% among men and boys.

Acess to treatment

Access to PrEP

HIV Among Key Populations

HIV Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women

HIV Among Adult Women

Although Strides Have Been Made In The Hiv Response Children Are Still Affected By The Epidemic

Of the estimated 38.4 million people living with HIV worldwide in 2021, 2.73 million were children aged 019. Each day in 2021, approximately 850 children became infected with HIV and approximately 301 children died from AIDS related causes, mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services.

As of 2021, roughly 14.9 million children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes. Millions more have been affected by the epidemic, through a heightened risk of poverty, homelessness, school dropout, discrimination and loss of opportunities, as well as COVID-19. These hardships include prolonged illness and death. Of the estimated 650,000 people who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2021, 110,000 of them were children under 20 years of age.

Global trends

In 2021, around 160,000 children aged 09 were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number of children aged 09 living with HIV to 1.02 million . Nearly 86 per cent of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. One bright spot on the global horizon is the rapid decline of approximately 52 per cent in new HIV infections among children aged 09 since 2010 due to stepped-up efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. However, the number of new HIV infections among adolescents has declined at a slower rate of about 40 per cent.

Geographic disparity

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Most Upsetting Hiv Statistics 2020

• 36.9 million people are infected with HIV worldwide
• Around 770,000 people have perished worldwide due to AIDS-related illnesses
• 23.3 million people worldwide used antiretroviral therapy against AIDS in 2018
• The rate of deaths caused by AIDS has been reduced by over 55% since 2004
• 63 out of 10,000 people who use an infected needle will get HIV.

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How Common Is Hiv In The Uk

The most recent estimate suggests there were 106,890 people living with HIV in the UK in 2019. Of these, around 5,150 are undiagnosed so do not know they are HIV positive.

London continues to have the highest rates of HIV in England: 37% of new diagnoses in 2020 were in London residents. In 2019, 38% of people seen for HIV care were living in London.

Anyone can get HIV but people from some groups or parts of the world are more likely to be affected. In particular, men who have sex with men and black African people are disproportionately affected.

Of the 4,139 people diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2019, 41% were gay or bisexual men.

Of the 1,559 heterosexual people diagnosed with HIV in 2019, 37% were black African men and women.

In 2017, the overall mortality rate for people aged 15-59 who were diagnosed early was, for the first time, equal to that of the general population for the same age group.

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Us Response To The Global Epidemic

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is the U.S. Governments response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and represents the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. has supported a world safer and more secure from infectious disease threats. It has demonstrably strengthened the global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to new and existing riskswhich ultimately enhances global health security and protects Americas borders. Among other global results, PEPFAR provided HIV testing services for more than 50 million people in Fiscal Year 2021 and, as of September 30, 2021, supported lifesaving ART for nearly 18.96 million men, women, and children. PEPFAR also enabled 2.8 million babies to be born HIV-free to parents living with HIV.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health represents the largest public investment in HIV/AIDS research in the world. NIH is engaged in research around the globe to understand, diagnose, treat, and prevent HIV infection and its many associated conditions, and to find a cure.

Substantial Progress And The Challenges That Remain

The United States has made enormous strides in HIV treatment, care, and prevention since the epidemic began 40 years ago.1 HIV was once the leading cause of death for young people, but because of scientific advances, fewer people are becoming infected with HIV, and those who do are living longer and healthier lives.2-5 The rate of new HIV infections declined 73% between 1984 and 2019, and the age-adjusted death rate has dropped more than 80% since its peak in 1995.4,6

In some ways, however, progress has stalled too many people remain unaware of their HIV status, and the uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis medicine has been slow.7,8

• In 2019, there were approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the US9
• In 2019, there were 34,800 new infections in the US, which represented an 8% decrease since 20159
• In 2019, an estimated 1 in 8 people living with HIV in the US did not know they had it7
• In 2019, about 66% of people living with HIV received some HIV care, 50% were retained in care, and 56% were virally suppressed10 *
• In 2016, an estimated 1.1 million people in the US were eligible for PrEP medicine based on their risk factors, but only 78,360 people filled prescriptions8

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Generalised And Concentrated Epidemics: One Type Of Epidemic May Conceal Another

For UNAIDS, an epidemic is “generalized” when HIV prevalence exceeds 1% of the general adult population . For situations where HIV prevalence in this population is under 1% but exceeds 5% in “vulnerable” sub-populations , UNAIDS uses the term “concentrated” epidemic. Since 2006, the term “hyper-endemic” has been applied to the epidemic in southern Africa, where prevalence exceeds 15%. According to these definitions, most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have generalized epidemics with coexisting “concentrated” epidemics.