Sub-Saharan Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa, the epicentre of the global HIV/Aids epidemic which now infects an estimated 40.3 million people, is home to 60 per cent of all those living with the disease, according to UNAids and the WHO.
Of the near 26 million adults in the region infected by the disease, 57 per cent are women, and the annual HIV/Aids epidemic update maintained young women would remain the most at-risk group for the foreseeable future.
In short, women remain "disproportionately affected by HIV in this region and, at the same time, poorly informed about the epidemic", stated a UN report.
The UN and other parties assert that prominent among the factors attributing to the high infection rate among women is their "social and socioeconomic status" in African cultures. UNAids spokesman Richard Delate said this basically referred to the sexual and economic relationships a woman had with the opposite sex, and it could be applied across the sub-Saharan region.
"Socioeconomic refers to the issues of transactional sex, where you have young women going out with older men for 'presents'. This fosters a dependent relationship between a woman and a man, in which the man has the power."
According to a mathematical model produced for the sub-Sahara, a comprehensive prevention and treatment package would avert 55 per cent of new infections which otherwise could be expected to occur between now and 2020.
In relation to preventative measures, Mark Heywood of Treatment Action Campaign, an advocacy group for HIV/Aids, insisted that while the South African government looked like it was running a large scale preventative campaign, the statistics showed it was not maximising its potential.
"It's all well and good to boast about handing out 400 million condoms, but HIV/Aids is on the increase," he says. "We believe the current prevention campaigns are too generic to be helpful. The ABC message [Abstinence, Being faithful and Condom use] is fine but what happens when a woman's husband is having sex outside the marriage?"