HIV/AIDS - statistics - Statistical Data Included

New Internationalist, June, 2002

Drowning by numbers Twenty-two million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the disease was first discovered just over 20 years ago. Three million people died last year alone.

Thirty-six million people are now infected: 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa. In Botswana, 36% of adults have the HIV virus, in South Africa 20%. (1)

Youth Young people in their teens and twenties are among the most susceptible to the HIV virus. Experimentation with sex and drugs combined with youthful ignorance can be a deadly combination. (2)

* An estimated 10.3 million people aged 15-24 are Living with HIV/AIDS and 50% of all new infections, 7,000 every day, occur among young people.

* According to UNICEF over half of people aged 15-24 in more than a dozen countries, from Bolivia to Vietnam; have never heard of AIDS or have serious misconceptions about how AIDS is spread.

* Young sex workers are at especially high risk-20% of India's 2 million sex workers are under and nearly 50% are under 18. In Cambodia, 30% of sex workers aged 13-19 are infected with HIV.

Regional AIDS statistics, 2001 (1)

                                                        Adult
                           People with     Newly-     prevalence
Region                       HIV/AIDS     infected       rate

Sub-Saharan Africa         28.1 million  3.4 million     8.4%
N Africa and Middle East     440,000       80,000        0.2%
S and SE Asia              6.1 million     800,000       0.6%
E Asia and Pacific          1 million      270,000       0.1%
Latin America              1.4 million     130,000       0.5%
Caribbean                    420,000       60,000        2.2%
E Europe and Central Asia   1 million      250,000       0.5%
W Europe                     560,000       30,000        0.3%
N America                    940,000       45,000        0.6%
Australia and NZ              15,000         500         0.1%

Total                       40 million    5 million      1.2%
People living with HIV/AIDS, 2001

Total 40.0 million

Men                19.7m
Women              17.6m
Children under 15   2.7m

Note: Table made from bar graph
Newly infected with HIV, 2001

Total 5.0 million

Men                2.5m
Women              1.8m
Children under 15  5.10m

Note: Table made from bar graph
AIDS deaths in 200*

Total 3.0 million

Men                1.3m
Women              1.1m
Children under 15  .58m

Note: Table made from bar graph

*[Unreadable in original source]

Poverty

Being poor and malnourished means your body is more susceptible to infection and your options for treating the disease are limited.

* Average life expectancy is plummeting across sub-Saharan Africa. In 16 nations more than 10% of the adult population is infected. Life expectancy has dropped 17 years in more than a dozen African countries, from 64 to 47 years. (1)

* AIDS will increase the percentage of people living in extreme poverty in Burkina Faso, Rwanda and Uganda, from 45% to 515, by 2015. (3)

* Fewer people mean fewer workers and less tax income for governments. Botswana will lose 20% of public revenue by 2010 due to AIDS.

* In Jamaica and Trinidad AIDS deaths will reduce national income by 5% by 2005.

Projected Life Expectancy, 2010 (4)

           WITH  WITHOUT
Country    AIDS   AIDS

Botswana    38     66
Ethopia     39     95
Namibia     39     70
Swaziland   37     68
Brazil      68     76
Hait        54     59
Ponduras    60     78
Burma       59     68
Cambodia    53     97
Thailand    73     75
Projected impact of HIV/AIDS on GDP of selected sub-Saharan African
countries (4)

Percent reduction in GDP

Kenya      14%
Tanzania  -19%
Zambia     -7%
Zimbabwe   -6%

Note: Table made from bar graph

Drugs Since the mid-1990s new drugs (antiretrovirals or ARVs) have been available to control the spread of HIV. However, patents and prices are controlled by multinational drug companies and the drugs are too expensive for the majority of people with AIDS who live in the South..

* In 1998 the top 10 drug companies made worldwide profits of $34.7 billion on sales of $108.1 billion, one of the highest average profit margins of any industry in the world. (5)

* In Brazil, after the Government began producing generic ARVs, prices fell 82% and the price of the AIDS 'cocktail' therapy fell from $10,000 to $300 a year. (5) As result AIDS deaths have fallen by half and the country saved $677 million treatment costs from 1997 to 2000.

* South Africa estimates it would cost $6 billion to provide ARV therapy to all South Africans living with AIDS. That's less than a fifth of what the Government spend last year on arms and less than a sixth of the $40 billion spent paying off the apartheid-era debt each year. (6)

Big Pharma vs generics

Cost of daily dose of patented vs generic fluconazole *, June *000(7)

Guatemala         $27.60
(Pfizer patent)
USA               $12.20
(pfizer patent)
Spain             $10.57
(Pfizer patent)
Kenva            $10.50
(Pfizer patent)
South Africa      $8.25
(Pfizer patent)
India             $ .64
(Cipla generic)
Thailand          $ .29
(Biolab generic)

* Fluconazole (its generic name is difflucan) is an anti-fungal drug
commonly used  against oral thrush and cryptococcal meningitis, both
of which attack people with HIV.

*[Unreadable in original source]