The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Middle East and North America remains relatively small, but there are localized strings of infections among injecting drug users, and a rather large epidemic in southern Sudan.
- 55,000 people contracted the virus last year
- 600,000 people are infected total
- 45,000 people died due to AIDS related illnesses
- “There is the potential for a considerable rise in the number of the HIV infections in this region.” This excludes southern Sudan because it already is reaching its potential infection rate.
- The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Southern Sudan region is confined mainly to those people injecting drugs with unclean needles, or homosexuals, who in this region, are shown to engage in unsafe sexual contact.
In this region, the country of Sudan is by far the most affected. Here, the disease is more commonly spread heterosexually, and in the adult population the infection rate is around two percent. Furthermore, compared to the neighboring Khartoum, the pregnant female population of southern Sudan is six to eight times more likely to have the HIV virus. The overall strength of the outbreak in this area of the world is rather weak, but some surveillance data suggests that homosexual males and injecting drug users are starting to become infected.
THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IS A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM, THEREFORE A WORLDWIDE RESPONSE IS REQUIRED. TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP, CLICK HERE! |
Notes:
* This mark indicates that this chart came directly from the UNAIDS (2003) AIDS epidemic update, December Report, the report can be accessed from the second link below, once you have reached the UNAIDS website, click the first link in the column on the right hand side
Resources:
- Kanabus, Annabel. 14 Feb 2004. AVERT. 14 Feb 2004. < http://www.avert.org/ >.
- UNAIDS: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. 14 Feb 2004. < http://www.unaids.org/ >.