HIV/AIDS Scenario
When AIDS first emerged, no one could have predicted how the epidemic would spread across the world and how many millions of lives it would change. There was no real idea what caused it and consequently no real idea how to protect against it.
Already, more than twenty-five million people around the world have
died of AIDS-related diseases. In 2007, around 2.1 million men, women
and children lost their lives. 33 million people around the world are
now living with HIV, and most of these are likely to die over the next
decade or so. The most recent UNAIDS/WHO estimates show that, in 2007
alone, 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV.
It is disappointing that the global numbers of people infected with HIV
continue to rise, despite the fact that effective prevention strategies
already exist.
According to the 2007 UNAIDS Global AIDS Report there was a 16%
drop in HIV cases over the previous year mainly due to revised
estimates in several countries. Seventy per cent of this change is due
to revisions from Angola, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and
Zimbabwe. The single biggest reason of this drop is the revision of
India’s estimates using a new, improved methodology.
The new estimates cannot be compared to other published
estimates but it is possible to recalculate the earlier figures to look
at trends over the years.