AIDS FACTS BBC

Living with AIDS Worldwide- 40 million people USA- 886, 575 Sub-Saharan Africa- 26 million people 10 out of 11 people infected worldwide live in Sub-Saharan Africa 1 in 10 South African adults are affected with HIV/AIDS

HIV Infected Worldwide- 11 of every 1000 aged (5 million) year 2003 Sub-Saharan Africa 8% of all adults in same age group (3-3.4 million) year 2003 –Botswana has an infection rate of 36% –South Africa’s infection rate is about 20% USA year e/2001/aidsinafrica/map _flash.html

Deaths for 2003 Worldwide- 3 million Africa 2.3 million – with only 10% of the world’s population, sub-saharan Africa has 77% of the world’s deaths from AIDS USA (2002)

AIDS death totals World total 21.8 million-up to 2001 USA 501,669- up to 2002 Africa- 15 million Estimates are that AIDS will kill 1 in 3 African adults in some of the most affected countries and that life expectancies will fall to around 30

Orphans due to AIDS World 14 million Sub-Saharan Africa- 11 million or 80% of the total world number Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 90% of the children infected – most will not turn 5

The reality AIDS in Africa bears little resemblance to the American epidemic, limited to specific high-risk groups and brought under control through intensive education, vigorous political action and expensive drug therapy. Here the disease has bred a Darwinian perversion. Society's fittest, not its frailest, are the ones who die — adults spirited away, leaving the old and the children behind. You cannot define risk groups: everyone who is sexually active is at risk. Babies too, unwittingly infected by mothers. Barely a single family remains untouched. Most do not know how or when they caught the virus, many never know they have it, many who do know don't tell anyone as they lie dying. Africa can provide no treatment for those with AIDS. ules/aids_in_Africa/aIDs_in _Africa_front.asp

28 million+ Africans with HIV/AIDS They will all die, of tuberculosis, pneumonia, meningitis, diarrhea, whatever overcomes their ruined immune systems first. And the statistics, grim as they are, may be too low. There is no broad-scale AIDS testing: infection rates are calculated mainly from the presence of HIV in pregnant women. Death certificates in these countries do not record AIDS as the cause. "Whatever stats we have are not reliable," warns Mary Crewe of the University of Pretoria's Center for the Study of AIDS. "Everybody's guessing."