More than three million people died in 2003 and an estimated five million acquired the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), bringing to 40 million the number of people worldwide living with the virus.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst-affected region. In 2003, an estimated 26.6 million people there were living with HIV, including 3.2 million who became infected during the past year. AIDS killed about 2.3 million people in 2003;
In Botswana and Swaziland the infection rate of HIV/AIDS among adults is 40 per cent. One in five pregnant women in some African countries is infected with the virus;
Southern Africa is home to about 30 per cent of people with HIV/ AIDS worldwide, yet has less than 2 per cent of the world's population;
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the virus is spreading. Some 230,000 people were infected with HIV in 2003, bringing the total number of people living with the virus to 1.5 million. AIDS claimed an estimated 30,000 lives in the past year;
AIDS was first reported in the US in 1981 among homosexual men. The HIV virus which causes AIDS was identified by 1984;
AIDS is a syndrome, a combination of illnesses. The HIV virus attacks the immune system leaving the body vulnerable to a variety of life-threatening diseases, so- called opportunistic infections;
The HIV virus is found in semen, blood, breast milk and other bodily fluids. It reproduces inside blood cells, which normally protect the body against infection;
It is transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusions, needle-sharing, by pregnant women to the foetus and through an infected mother's breast milk to her baby;
There is no known cure but drugs which suppress the replication of the HIV infection have prolonged the lives of sufferers in countries that can afford them:
Scientists are also trying to develop a vaccine. An effective, affordable vaccine against HIV is considered the best hope of bringing the global epidemic under control.
Source: www.unaids.org