AIDS in Africa
By Gabriel Nack and Gretta Goertzen
AIDS
Many countries in Africa are affected by AIDS and HIV. The social and economic consequences of the AIDS epidemic are widely felt.
Orphans
There are 11 million orphans in the region because of AIDS. 8 out of every 10 children in the world whose parents have died of AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Life expectancy
There is an impact that AIDS has on life expectancy. The biggest increase in deaths has been among adults between 20 and 49 years old.
HIV and AIDS
Seventy-two percent of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV and AIDS has caused tremendous suffering in the continent. During 2011, an estimated 1.2 million adults and children died in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of AIDS. Because AIDS claims the lives of people at an age when most already have young children, more children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa than anywhere else. Sub-Saharan Africa has extremely been affected by HIV and AIDS.