HIV Quick Facts - The Status of HIV Among Women
Women now make up half of all people living with HIV worldwide, 57 percent of these women living in sub-Saharan Africa. In that region, women are infected at an earlier age than men, and the ratio of new infections among women compared to men is even higher within the 15 - 24 age group. Many factrs contribute to this problem. They include:
- poverty
- social and political instability
- violence
- lack of access to adequate health care
- ignorance of the HIV problem
The State of HIV in South Africa
In the United States, up to 950,000 Americans are estimated to have HIV, with 40,000 new infections occurring each year. Among women, minorities, particularly African Americans, are hit by the vast majority of AIDS cases. These women are suffering from rates of HIV infection 10 to 20 times those of white women. AIDS has become one of the leading causes of death among women aged 25-44 years.
AIDS has killed more than 20 million people since the first cases were diagnosed in 1981; including 2.9 million in 2003 alone. It is estimated that 37.8 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2003, with 2.9 million new cases that year. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst-hit region. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70 percent of all people living with HIV in the world.
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