Article July 22, 2002 Issue

AIDS: an overview of the challenge

A Global Overview published jointly by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization says that 20 years after the first clinical evidence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was reported, the disease has become the most devastating one that humanity has ever faced. Since the epidemic began, more than 60 million people have been infected with the immunodeficiency virus. HIV/AIDS is now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, it is the fourth-biggest killer.

At the end of 2001, an estimated 40 million people globally were living with HIV. In many parts of the developing world, the majority of new infections have occurred in young adults, with young women especially vulnerable. About one-third of those currently living with HIV/AIDS are aged 15-24. Most of them do not know they carry the virus. Many millions more know nothing or too little about HIV to protect themselves from it.

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