The Impact of HIV/AIDS

Note: New estimates of HIV/AIDS infections, prevalence and deaths were reported in the UNAIDS 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update, released in November 2007.¹ These estimates are lower than those cited in prior reports; numbers and trends should be interpreted with caution.
Over the past 25 years, nearly 25 million people have died from AIDS.¹ HIV/AIDS causes debilitating illness and premature death in people during their prime years of life and has devastated families and communities. Further, HIV/AIDS has complicated efforts to fight poverty, improve health, and promote development by:²

• Diminishing a person’s ability to support, work and provide for his or her family. At the same time, treatment and health-care costs related to HIV/AIDS consume household incomes. The combined effect of reduced income and increased costs impoverishes individuals and households.
  
  
• Deepening socioeconomic and gender disparities. Women are at high risk of infection and have few options for providing for their families. Children affected by HIV/AIDS, due to their own infection or parental illness or death, are less likely to receive an education, as they leave school to care for ailing parents and younger siblings.
  
  
• Straining the resources of communities – hospitals, social services, schools and businesses. Health care workers, teachers, and business and government leaders have been lost to HIV/AIDS. The impact of diminished productivity is felt on a national scale.