Which are the countries that have the most AIDS cases in the world.
It is never easy to write about these things, since researching about them does not simply include basic facts, definitions, and statistics, but also coming across certain personal stories which can be quite hard to read. Similarly as people with cancer and other terminal illnesses, people with AIDS still hopefully wait for the doctors around the world to find a solution and cure for their medical condition. Until now, unfortunately, everything they tried was unsuccessful. Before I go deeper into the issue, I would just like to make sure that everyone understands the difference between HIV and AIDS, since I have noticed that somewhere they are used to describe the same condition, which is definitely not correct. In short, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks human body and the syndrome or medical condition named AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) appears in the final stages of HIV infection. To get to know about this issue better, make sure to read our list of 10 Countries with the Highest HIV Rates in Europe.
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It is also really important to note that HIV cannot be transmitted from one person to another like any other virus, unless there is a contact with body fluids from a person who is already infected, including blood, vaginal fluids, semen, breast milk, rectal fluids and pre-seminal fluids. The virus attacks cells known as CD4, and since they are crucial when it comes to fighting infections, the immune system immediately weakens and becomes impotent to fight it. However, certain treatments help the virus stagnate at certain stages, and it is possible for it not to progress into the stage of AIDS. Regarding the global statistics, there are 36.7 million of people with AIDS in the world, counting around 1.8 million of HIV-positive children aged 15 or less, who were most likely infected through their mothers. Not surprising is the fact that most of these people actually live in very poor or middle-income countries, and around 66% of infected people are from sub-Saharan Africa. Regarding America, the number of HIV-positive people was 39,513 in 2015, but the most important thing is the fact that a gradual decline of 19% was noticed throughout the period from 2005 to 2014.
The most relevant pieces of information are actually provided by the Central Intelligence Agency, although they haven’t been updated from 2014. However, since it is a very short period of time, nothing much could be changed, so I decided to use it them while making the list. They provide the adult prevalence rate, that is, the percentage of adults aged 15 to 49 who live with HIV/AIDS. I also found the visual portrayal by the World Health Organization quite useful in this case for the purpose of comparison. To provide the additional information regarding different countries and statistics, I used the information established by WHO and UNAIDS, depending on the country. It is important to note that there are hardly any data that treat AIDS separately from the other stages of HIV, so the numbers usually give the insight into HIV/AIDS infections. So, let’s see which are the countries that have the most AIDS cases in the world.
