AIDS Testing

Before purchasing a Discreet AIDS Testing Kit, it is helpful to know some statistics regarding AIDS and HIV. The following is a brief summation of the AIDS worldwide epidemic. If you are looking for information on AIDS treatments, click here.

AIDS and HIV Worldwide Statistics: Reasons For AIDS Testing

People Living with AIDS

According to estimates from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), 40 million adults and 2.7 million children were living with AIDS at the end of 2001. This is more than 50% higher that the figures projected by WHO in 1991 on the basis of the data then available.

New Infections and Deaths

During 2001, approximately 5 million people became infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. The year also saw 3 million deaths from HIV/AIDS; a higher global total than in any year since the beginning of the epidemic, despite antiretroviral therapy which staved off AIDS and AIDS deaths in the richer countries.

Deaths among those already infected will continue to increase for some years even if prevention programs and global AIDS testing manage to cut the number of new infections to zero. However, with the HIV positive population still expanding, the annual number of AIDS deaths can be expected to increase for many years.

Children Affected By HIV & AIDS

Around half of all people who acquire HIV become infected before they turn 25 and typically die of the life threatening illnesses called "AIDS" before their 35th birthday. This age factor makes AIDS uniquely threatening to children. By the end of 1999, the epidemic had left behind a cumulative total of 13.2 million AIDS orphans, defined as those having lost their mother or both parents before reaching the age of 15.

In 2001, an estimated 800,000 children aged 14 or younger became infected with HIV. Over 90% were babies born to HIV-positive women, who acquired the virus at birth or through their mother's breast milk. Of these, almost nine-tenths were in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa's lead in mother to child transmission of HIV was increased, despite new evidence that HIV ultimately impairs women's fertility. Once infected, a woman can be expected to bear 20% fewer children than she otherwise would. AIDS testing would save children's lives by giving the perspective parents prior knowledge of the risks ahead.

Men and AIDS

In all parts of the world except sub-Saharan Africa, there are more men infected with HIV and dying of AIDS than women. Altogether, an estimated 2.5 million men aged 15-49 became infected during 2001, bringing the number of adult males living with HIV or AIDS by the end of the year to 19.6 million.

HIV/AIDS around the world

The overwhelming majority of people with HIV, some 95% of the global total, live in the developing world. That proportion is set to grow even further as infection rates continue to rise in countries where poverty, poor health systems and limited resources for prevention and care fuel the spread of the virus.

High-income Countries

During the year 2001, 30,000 adults and children are estimated to have acquired HIV in Western Europe, and 45,000 in North America. Overall HIV prevalence has risen slightly in both regions, mainly because anti retroviral therapy is keeping HIV positive people alive longer.

Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa south of the Sahara desert, an estimated 3.4 million adults and children became infected with HIV during the year 2001, bringing the total number of people in the region living with HIV/AIDS to 28.1 million by the end of the year. The number of people who became infected during the year was slightly less than the 2000 total of 3.8 million. However, this trend will not continue if countries such as Nigeria begin experiencing a rapid expansion.

For the moment, overall HIV prevalence, the regional total of people living with HIV or AIDS continues to rise because there are still more newly infected individuals joining it each year than there are people leaving it through death. However, as people infected years ago succumb to HIV related illnesses (average survival in the absence of antiretroviral therapy is estimated at around 8-10 years), mortality from AIDS is increasing. AIDS deaths in 2000 totaled 2.4 million, as compared with 2.2 million in 1999. In the coming years, unless there is far broader access to life prolonging therapy, and providing that new infections do not start rising again, the number of surviving HIV positive Africans can be expected to stabilize and finally shrink, as AIDS increasingly claims the lives of those infected long ago.

It is estimated that 12 to 13 African women are currently infected for every 10 African men infected. There are a number of reasons why female prevalence is higher than male in this region, including the greater efficiency of male to female HIV transmission through sex and the younger age at initial infection for women.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The estimated number of adults and children living with HIV or AIDS in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union was 420,000 at the end of 1999. Just two years later, a conservative estimate puts the figure at 1 million. Most of the quarter million adults who became infected during 2000 are men, with the majority of them being injection drug users. In Estonia, reported HIV infections have soared from 12 in 1999 to 1,112 during the first nine months of 2001.

In the Russian Federation, the startling increase in HIV infections of recent years is continuing, with new reported diagnosis having almost doubled annually since 1998. In 2001, more than 40,000 new HIV Positive diagnoses were reported in the first six months.

HIV incidences are rising faster in Eastern Europe and central Asia than anywhere else in the world. However, the epidemic is still at an early stage in the region and massive prevention efforts could curtail its scale and extent.

Asia

An estimated 800,000 adults have become infected in South and South-East Asia during the course of the year 2001. Overall, as of the end of 2001, the region is estimated to have 6.1 million adults and children living with HIV or AIDS.

The region of East Asia and the Pacific is still keeping HIV at bay in most of its huge population. Some 270,000 adults and children became infected during the course of the year. This brings the number of people living with HIV or AIDS at the end of the year 2001 to 1 Million, representing just 0.1% of the region's adult population, as compared with the prevalence rate of 0.6% in South and South-East Asia.

North Africa and the Middle East

Few new country estimates of HIV infection were produced for this region between 1994 and 1999. Recent evidence, however, suggests that new infections are on the rise. With an estimated 80,000 new infections in the region during 2001, the number of adults and children living with HIV or AIDS had reached 440,000.

Latin America and the Caribbean

In Latin America an estimated 130,000 adults and children became infected during 2001. An estimated 1.4 million adults and children are living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that is experiencing diverse epidemics.

Sources:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Health Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention

UNAIDS Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, "AIDS Epidemic Update December 2001 " and " Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic December 2001".