- A report from UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, released on Tuesday, shows the number of adults and children living with HIV reached 39.4 million in 2004.
Following are some key facts and figures about the disease:
* The number of people living with HIV has increased from 35 million in 2001 to 39.4 million in 2004, the highest level ever. A total of 3.1 million people died from AIDS in 2004.
* Sub-Saharan Africa, with just over 10 percent of the world's population, is home to more than 60 percent of all HIV positive people, or about 25.4 million people. An estimated 3.1 million were newly infected during the past year.
* AIDS killed approximately 2.3 million people in Africa in 2004.
* Women have a greater risk of becoming infected than men. Almost 57 percent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women and girls.
* In Asia there were about 1.2 million people who were infected with HIV in the past year and 8.2 million are estimated to be living with the disease. India has about 5.1 million people are infected with HIV, according to the latest estimates.
* More than 440,000 people are living with HIV in the Caribbean, including 53,000 people newly infected in 2004. An estimated 36,000 people died of AIDS in the region in 2004. With an average adult HIV prevalence of 2.3 percent, it is the second most affected region in the world after sub-Saharan Africa.
* In Eastern Europe and Central Asia more than 80 percent of all officially reported cases have been among drug users since the beginning of the epidemic. About 1.4 million people in the region were living with HIV at the end of 2004. An estimated 210,000 people were newly infected with HIV in the past year and 60,000 died of AIDS.
* The Russian Federation is the worst affected with about 70 percent of all infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
* AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was first reported in 1981 among homosexual men in the United States. HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, was identified in 1984.
* AIDS is a syndrome, a combination of illnesses. The HIV virus attacks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to a variety of life-threatening diseases, so-called opportunistic infections, such as tuberculosis.
Source: www.unaids.org
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