Nov 5 (Reuters) - Declining donor HIV/AIDS funding could have catastrophic consequences for millions who need treatment and undo progress made in fighting the disease, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday.
An estimated 33 million people around the world are HIV positive, the bulk of cases emanating from the developing world which relies on donor aid to reduce infections and treat carriers of the disease.
Here are some facts about AIDS.
* Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for two thirds of all infections and 75 percent of AIDS deaths in 2007.
* Global deaths from AIDS reached an estimated 2 million in 2007, down from 2.1 million deaths in 2006. Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people have died from the virus.
* The annual number of new HIV infections declined to 2.7 million in 2007 from 3.0 million in 2001.
* Some 33 million people had human immunodeficiency virus infections in 2007, most of them in Africa, according to the 2008 United Nations report on the AIDS epidemic.
* An estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, bringing to 22 million the number of Africans living with HIV.
* More than half of the 9.5 million people who need AIDS drugs cannot get them, a United Nations report said at the end of September.
* In South Africa, an estimated 5.7 million people are living with HIV. About 350,000 have died from AIDS.
Sources:Reuters/UNAIDS
© 2009 Reuters
More News from Reuters