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Get the facts about HIV and AIDS and how it affects children and their families.
- Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 67 percent of the total world HIV-positive population.
- Of the estimated 2 million children under 15 living with HIV, nearly 90 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Of the estimated 2.7 million people newly infected with HIV in 2007, some 370,000 were children under 15.
- In 2007, an estimated 2 million people died of AIDS-related causes. Approximately 290,000 of these were children under 15.
- Currently, less than 10 percent of HIV-positive children in need of treatment are being treated.
- About 45 percent of new infections occur among young people ages 15 to 24.
- Approximately 15 million children under age 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Of these, nearly 12 million live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Each day, about 1,000 children worldwide become infected with HIV, the vast majority of them newborns.
- To date about 65 million people have been infected with HIV, and AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981.
- About 15.5 million women comprise nearly half the total number of people living with HIV, and 77 percent (12 million) of women with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region in the world. Two-thirds of all people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa; in 2007, 22 million people there were living with HIV.
- In 2007, 33 million people were living with HIV. About 8 percent of those 33 million people living with HIV were from new infections – and one-fifth of that 8 percent were children.
- Although about 33 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women receive drug therapies to prevent the transmission of HIV to their infants, only 11 percent of HIV-positive women in sub-Saharan Africa who need antiretrovirals had access.
- More than 6,800 new HIV infections occur daily worldwide, and more than 5,700 people die of AIDS.
- Approximately 5.5 million young people, ages 15 to 24, are living with HIV.
Sources: www.childinfo.org, www.unaids.org, www.unicef.org,
