Case report
The Epidemiology of HIV and AIDS in the World
Aliya Bokazhanova
George W. Rutherford
Abstract
The worldwide epidemic of HIV continues to expand in many regions of the world, particularly in southern Africa,
South and Southeast Asia, East Asia and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Estimates are that at the end of 2005 there
were 38.6 million persons living with HIV infection and that 4.1 million new infections and 2.8 million deaths from HIV
occurred during the year. Regionally different patterns predominate from generalized heterosexual epidemics in sub-Saharan
Africa and parts of the Caribbean to mixes of epidemics in which transmission among injection drug users, their
sexual partners, commercial sex workers and their partners intersect. Multilateral and bilateral antiretroviral access
campaigns, such as the World Health Organization’s 3 x 5 initiative, have resulted in broader access to live-saving therapy
for infected persons in low- and middle-income countries, but several million infected people who are clinically eligible
for antiretroviral therapy remain untreated. The public health challenge worldwide is to keep the uninfected and to
treat and care for those who have already been infected.
Keywords
HIV; AIDS; epidemiology; prevalence; Africa; Asia; Europe
Hrčak ID:
27698
URI
Publication date:
25.4.2006.
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