Despite major advances, HIV/AIDS remains one of the world's most
significant public health challenges, particularly in low and middle income
countries, with new diagnoses every year and young women in sub-Saharan Africa
seen as being particularly at risk.
World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 is used to unite people in
the fight against HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus first identified in
1984, to show their support for people living with HIV and commemorate those
who have died.
The member countries of the United Nations agreed in September in
a new set of global goals to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Here are some facts about AIDS in 2015 with data from the World
Health Organisation, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, and UNAIDS:
1. Globally about 36.9 million people are
living with HIV including 2.6 million children
2. An estimated 2 million were infected in 2014
3. An estimated 34 million people have died
from HIV or AIDS, including 1.2 million in 2014
4. The number of adolescent deaths from
AIDS has tripled over the last 15 years
5. AIDS is the number one cause of death
among adolescents in Africa and the second among adolescents globally
6. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with
the highest prevalence, girls account for 7 in 10 new infections among those
aged 15-19
7. At start of 2015, 15 million people
were receiving antiretroviral therapy compared to 1 million in 2001
8. Despite widespread availability of HIV
testing, only an estimated 51 percent of people with HIV know their status
9. The global response to HIV has averted
30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million deaths since 2000
10. In 2015, Cuba was the first country
declared to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV
Original Article: Reuters
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