AIDS+in+Africa

AIDS in Africa Alyssa "Treatment is technically feasible in every part of the world. Even the lack of infrastructure is not an excuse—I don't know a single place in the world where the real reason AIDS treatment is unavailable is that the health infrastructure has exhausted its capacity to deliver it. It's not knowledge that's the barrier. It's political will." Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS ·   Inhabited by just over 12% of the world's population, Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of the AIDS-infected population. Sub-Saharan Africa 6.1% 24.5m  2.0m Worldwide 1.0%  38.6m  2.8m North America 0.8% 1.3m  27,000 Western Europe 0.3% 720,000  12,000 ** Regional comparisons of HlV in 2005 ** (Source: UNAIDS, __2006 Report on the global AIDS__  __  epidemic)  __ ·   in certain parts of Southern Africa there is widespread denial that HTV does in fact cause AIDS. ·    there are many myths attached to the use of condoms, such as the idea that they are used to limit the growth of the African population, that eating a chicken is dangerous because it may have ingested a condom (with the virus) and that condoms stifle the traditional power of the man in his community. ·   In the 35 African nations with the highest prevalence, average life expectancy is 48.3 years—6.5 years less than it would be without the disease. For the eleven countries in Africa with prevalence rates above 13%, life expectancy is 47.7 years—11.0 years less than would be expected without HIV/AIDS. ·   The Joint United Nations Programe on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has predicted outcomes for the region to the year 2025. These range from a plateau and eventual decline in deaths beginning around 2012 to a catastrophic continual growth in the death rate with potentially 90 million cases of infection. ·   Core problems occur because of: newly decentralized systems, lack of infrastructure (particularly with health clinics), corruption at all levels (within donor agencies as well as government agencies), accountability to foreign donors rather than the communities at hand, and misguided resources. While each country has specific problems concerning the distribution of resources, these themes tend to prevail throughout those most affected. ·   New __anti-retroviral drugs__ (ARVs) can slow down and even reverse the progression of HIV infection, delaying the onset of ADDS by twenty years or more. Because of their high cost, however, only 7% of the 6 million people in developing countries who are in need of ARV treatment have access to medication. Access to the ARV therapy has increased more than eightfold since the end of 2003, with about 810,000 people on the treatment. ·   In 2006 alone, nearly 3 million deaths in Africa alone can be attributed to the AIDS epidemic ·   Africa has 12 million AIDS orphans ·   More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981
 * World region Adult HIV prevalence Total HIV AIDS deaths **
 * (ages 15-49) cases in 2005 **