Estimated Prevalence of HIV Infection and Mortality

Statistics from UNAIDS, July 2004 report

Adults and Children Living with HIV/AIDS
Country 2003 2001
USA 470,000-1,600,000 24,000-79,000
Tanzania 1,200,000-2,300,000 1,100,000-2,000,000
Caribbean 270,000-760,000 270,000-650,000
Honduras 35,000-110,000 29,000-90,000
Nicaragua 3,100-12,000 2,700-10,000

Rate of Persons Ages 15-49 Living with HIV/AIDS
Country 2003
USA 0.6
Tanzania 8.8
Caribbean 2,2
Honduras 1.6
Nicaragua 0.2

Deaths from HIV/AIDS
Country 2003 2001
USA 6,900-23,000 6,900-23,000
Tanzania 1,100,000-2,300,000 98,000-2,200,000
Caribbean 23,000-59,000 22,000-50,000
Honduras 2,300-7,200 1,700-5,500
Nicaragua <1000 <1000

Social and Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS impacts all sectors of society and particularly those in our partner provinces. Some of the significant costs include:

health care

economic impact

educational impact

social impact

Global Issues in Treatment

There are many factors to consider as we look at ways to provide medications for those in our partner provinces who are combating HIV/ AIDS. These include:

Orphan Relief

Before the impact of AIDS throughout the world, about 2% of all children in developing countries were orphans. By 1997 the proportion of children with one or both parents dead had skyrocketed to 7% in many African countries and sometimes was as high as 11%. Latest statistics indicate that each day 6,000 children lose one or both parents due to AIDS, with more than 15 million children now orphaned worldwide.

In Africa, AIDS is generating orphans so quickly that extended families can no longer cope. Families and communities can barely fend for themselves, much less care for the orphans. Children who have lost a parent due to AIDS suffer more than other orphans because of the stigma attached to the disease. They face more risk of malnutrition, illness, abuse and sexual exploitation than children orphaned by other causes, and can even be deprived of education and basic social services.

Many agencies, including our BWM, are working to stem the impact of AIDS on orphans. These include UNICEF, Compassion International, World Vision, the World Health Organization, to name a few. Feel free to check their websites to learn more about their work.

The AIDS Orphan Bracelet Project is a project through a coalition of organizations to raise funds for orphan relief in Africa. You can find more at their website: www.aidsbracelets.org.

The Dear Brothers and Sisters program under BWM is also receiving contributions. Funds collected will support the orphan work in Western Tanzania.

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission

Mothers who are infected with the HIV virus are at risk to transmit that virus to their newborn during the process of labor and birth. A primary HIV prevention strategy is to test all pregnant women to determine if they carry the virus in order to be able to offer therapy to decrease the chance that the virus will be given to the child. If the mother is untreated, the child has a 20 to 25% chance of becoming infected. In Tanzania the risk appears to be around 30% without treatment. This of course varies, depending on the amount of virus carried by the mother. Women treated in the US on a full antiretroviral regimen can decrease the risk of transmission to the child to about 2%. Women who live in our partner provinces have less opportunity to have this level of treatment. In some situations the mother is given one dose of an antiretroviral drug at delivery and the child receives one dose after birth. In Tanzania this can reduce the risk of transmission of HIV to the infant to 15-18%. It is also important to council the mother to use bottle feeding instead of breast feeding, since breast feeding confers an additional 12-15% HIV risk to the infant. This can be very difficult for women, given both the cultural value on breast feeding and the cost of bottle feeding.

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