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BACKGROUND

STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

CASE STUDIES

REFERENCES

HIV/AIDS is a global epidemic but is more prevalent in some areas than others. The above map from UNAIDS displays the percentage of each country’s population 15+ that is HIV-positive and the following bar graphs depict UNAIDS data for world regions for 2003 & 2005. Observation of the map and graphs illustrates that Sub-Saharan Africa is the world region most severely affected by the AIDS epidemic. South and Southeast Asia is the second most affected region, followed by Latin America. Change has been calculated to show which countries’ infection rates have changed most substantially over the two years. In absolute terms, Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest increase from 2003-2005. South and Southeast Asia experienced the second largest absolute increase. However, in relative terms the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region had the largest increase, rising 36.36% over the two years. East Asia also had a notable increase of 21.43% in HIV infection. While some regions had very little increase, there was no region that experienced a decrease in the number of HIV-positive individuals, thus demonstrating the extensive and growing reach of the AIDS epidemic.