Africa Still Hardest Hit by HIV/AIDS, Women in Frontline

Africa remains the global AIDS epicenter, accounting for almost two-thirds of HIV cases and 72 percent of AIDS deaths, UNAIDS reported today. In 2006, Africa had 2.8 million new infections and 2.1 million of the 2.9 million global AIDS deaths. Worst-hit remains Southern Africa, accounting for 32 percent of people with HIV and 34 percent of all AIDS deaths. In sub-Saharan Africa, 59 percent of those with HIV/AIDS are women.

By June, an estimated 1 million Africans with HIV/AIDS were receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), a 10-fold increase since December 2003 -- but still less than 23 percent of the 4.6 million who need ARVs.

In South Africa -- mirroring the region -- women ages 15-24 are four times more likely than young men to have HIV, with prevalences of 17 percent versus 4.4 percent, UNAIDS said. One in three women ages 30-34 had HIV in 2005, compared with one in four men ages 30-39.

One in nine people -- 5.5 million -- has HIV in South Africa, where total mortality figures shot up 79 percent from 1997 to 2004, though the proportion from AIDS is indeterminate. Nevertheless, a 2005 national household survey found half of infected residents reported feeling at no risk of acquiring HIV. An estimated 2 million South Africans do not know they are HIV-infected, UNAIDS said.

Prevalence declined in Zimbabwe, with infection among pregnant women falling from 30-32 percent in the early 2000s to 24 percent in 2004. One in five Zimbabweans has HIV, while 33.4 percent of adult Swazis have HIV.

In East Africa, prevalence is stabilizing in Uganda, while decreasing in Kenya and Tanzania and, to a lesser extent, in Rwanda. Burundi saw a sharp rise in HIV among pregnant women in a sentinel survey.

In West and Central Africa, HIV prevalence remains under 2 percent in Benin, Guinea and Senegal, and about 4 percent or less in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo.

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