HIV is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations.^[1]

Contents 1 HIV/AIDS Infection Rates 1.1 New infections per day 1.2 New HIV infections in 2008 1.3 People living with HIV 1.4 Deaths per year 1.5 Knowledge of HIV status 1.6 Treatment levels of those infected  2 Modes of Transmission 3 Women and HIV/AIDS 4 HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention in the News 5 HIV prevalence (adult) dataset 6 See Also 7 References 8 Sources 9 External Links

HIV/AIDS Infection Rates

A July 2010 report by the United Nations states that the most recent figures are (through 2008):

New infections per day

• Children: 1,200
• Young people (15–24): 2,500
• Adults (25+): 3,700

New HIV infections in 2008

• Children 430,000
• Young people (15–24) 920,000
• Adults (25+) 1,340,000

People living with HIV

• Children 2,100,000
• Young people (15–24) 5,000,000
• Adults (25+) 26,300,000
• TOTAL 33.4 Million

Deaths per year

• 2 Million

Knowledge of HIV status

• 40% are aware of the HIV status

Treatment levels of those infected 

• 5 million are receiving treatment
• 10 million await treatment

South Africa is the country with the highest amount of people living with HIV/AIDS at 5.7 million, while India is second with 2.4 million.  Swaziland is the country with the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS infections at 26.1% for adults.^[2]

Modes of Transmission

• Sexual transmission can occur when infected sexual secretions of one partner come into contact with the genital, oral, or rectal mucous membranes of another.
• Infection of HIV from an HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery of breastfeeding is called mother-to-child transmission (MTCT).
• If infected blood comes into contact with any open wound, HIV may be transmitted. This can account for infections in intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions (though most transfusions are checked for HIV in the developed world) and blood products.^[3]
  

Women and HIV/AIDS

Almost half of the adults living with HIV today are women. Over the past two years, the number of women and girls infected with HIV has increased in every region of the world, with rates rising particularly rapidly in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. More than three in four (77%) of adult women (15 years and older) with HIV globally live in Sub-Saharan Africa –  an estimated 12 million out of the 15.5 million women infected with HIV worldwide.

Biologically women are twice more likely to become infected with HIV through unprotected heterosexual intercourse than men. In many countries women are less likely to be able to negotiate condom use and are more likely to be subjected to non-consensual sex.

Gender inequality both fuels and intensifies the impact of the HIV epidemic. Recognising the nexus between HIV and gender inequality, at the 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS, all member states of the United Nations have pledged “ to eliminate gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence” and to “increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection, principally through the provision of health care and services, including, inter alia, sexual and reproductive health, and the provision of full access to comprehensive information and education.”

HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention in the News

In South Africa, a new study found a new way to sharply cut HIV infections among women and schoolgirls, who make up a majority of the newly infected in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the study, women who used a vaginal microbicidal gel containing an antiretroviral medication widely used to treat AIDS, tenofovir, were 39 percent less likely over all to contract HIV than those who used a placebo. Those who used the gel most regularly reduced their chances of infection 54 percent, according to a two-and-a-half year study of 889 women by Caprisa, a Durban-based AIDS research center.

In another piece of progress against AIDS, a separate, large study in alawi sponsored by the World Bank, found that if poor schoolgirls and their families received small monthly cash payments, the girls had sex later, less often and with fewer partners.

A year and a half after the program started, the girls were less than half as likely to be infected with the AIDS or herpes viruses than were girls whose families got no payments. The likelihood that the girls would agree to sex in return for gifts and cash declined as the size of the payments from the program rose, suggesting the central role of extreme poverty in sexual choices.^[4]

HIV prevalence (adult) dataset

See Also

AIDS,_Women_and_Conflict

HIV Prevalence Among Pregnant Women Aged 15-24

Millenium Development Goals and Women's Health

Millennium Development Goals

Conversations for a Better World

References

1. ↑ Weiss RA (May 1993). "How does HIV cause AIDS?". Science 260 (5112): 1273–9. doi:10.1126/science.8493571.
2. ↑ UNAIDS. (2010). UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010. New York City: The United Nations.
3. ↑ The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, August). HIV/AIDS - Resources - HIV Prevention in the United States at a Critical Crossroads. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from The Center for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/reports/hiv_prev_us.htm
4. ↑ Dugger, C. W. (2010, July 19). African Studies Give Women Hope in HIV Fight. Retrieved August 4, 2010, from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/world/africa/20safrica.html?ref=africa

Sources

• http://www.unaids.org/en/
  
• http://www.thebody.com/index.html
  
• http://www.avert.org/women.html
  
• http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/mtct/en/index.html
  

External Links

• http://womenandaids.unaids.org/default.html
  
• http://www.who.int/hiv/data/en/
  
• http://data.unaids.org/pub/Outlook/2010/20100713_outlook_report_web_en.pdf