Sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10% of the world’s population, but is home to more
than 60% of all people living with HIV—25.8 million (source - UNAIDS).
In 2005, an estimated 3.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa became newly infected,
while 2.4 million adults and children died of AIDS (source - UNAIDS).
The annual number of registered deaths rose by a massive 57% between 1997 and 2002.
Among those aged 25-49 years, the rise was 116% in the same six year period. (Source
- Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 1997-2003)
Based on antenatal data, studies estimate that 6.29 million South Africans were
living with HIV at the end of 2004, including 3.3 million women and 104,863 babies
(source - South African Department of Health 2004).
The rate of HIV amongst pregnant women in South Africa in 1993 was 2.4%, in 2003
it was 32% (source - UNAIDS).
The number of children in South Africa with HIV was 190,000 in 2001... in 2003 it
was 230,000 (source - UNAIDS).
As a result of AIDS South Africa had 660,000 orphans under the age of 17 in 2001,
now there are over 1.1m (source - UNAIDS).
In 2001, 270,000 people died in South Africa from AIDS. In 2003 the total was 370,000
- that's one thousand every day!