Health Policy Issues and Health Programmes in ... - Amazon S3

HIV/AIDS: International PerspectiveSession 5HIV/AIDS: International PerspectiveD C S Reddy, Consultant WHO, Epidemiology, NACO, New DelhiIntroductionSince HIV/AIDS was first reported in 1981, it has spread rapidly across theglobe, infecting over 60 million people. The enormity of the HIV/AIDSepidemic has had a crumbling effect not only on people’s health and on thehealth systems of affected nations, but also on development as a whole. Thegrowth and magnitude of the epidemic and its consequences vary fromcountry to country and even between provinces within a country. Thesevariations are attributable to the level, appropriateness, and timeliness ofaffected communities’ responses, in addition to the social and behaviouraldeterminants and mode of HIV transmission in that area. An attempt is madehere to summarize the current global HIV/AIDS situation in terms of themagnitude and consequences of the epidemic and to critically examine thefactors / intervention efforts contributing to variations in the epidemic insome relevant settings.The ProblemGlobal ScenarioBy the end of December 2001, 40 million people were estimated to be livingwith HIV/AIDS, of whom 37.2 millions (93%) are in their productive years(15–49 years of age) and 17.6 million (44%) are women. During 2001, anestimated 5 million people contracted HIV and three million people diedfrom AIDS (Table 1).Table 1. Global Summary of HIV/AIDS Epidemic 1 , December 2001People Total Adults Women Children