World Health Organisation 54th World Health Assembly - HIV/AIDS Report by Secretariat

Twenty years after the first case of AIDS was diagnosed, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS is widely seen as a major public health and development crisis and a potential threat to people at both national and regional levels - as recognized by the United Nations Security Council in January 2000.

What sets the disease apart from other epidemics is the speed of its spread and the extent of its devastation globally. It affects not only the lives of individual men, women and children, but also future social and economic development. Estimates by UNAIDS drawn up jointly with WHO, indicate that at the end of the year 2000, 36.1 million people were living with HIV/AIDS and 21.8 million had already died.

These numbers are significantly higher than those projected in 1991. Of the 5.3 million new infections in 2000, 1 in 10 occurred in children and 4 in 10 occurred in women. In 16 countries of sub-Saharan Africa more than 10% of the reproductive age population is now infected with HIV. HIV/AIDS has particular implications for young people entering their sexual and reproductive lives and affects the most productive segments of the population, lowering economic growth and reducing life expectancy by up to 50% in the hardest-hit countries.

(For access to the full Report, go to the downloadable Word and pdf documents on the right alongside this article.)