HIV and AIDS in Africa
By: Kinsey Tyson and Morgan Yellott
What are AIDS and HIV?
Africa Statistics (AIDS/HIV)
HIV/AIDS in Africa is one of the most important global public health issues of our time, and perhaps, in the history of mankind. In Africa, AIDS is one of the top causes of death. Africans account for nearly 70% of those who live with HIV and are dying of AIDS, and there are roughly 23.8 million infected people in all of Africa. More than 1 million adults and children die every year as a result of HIV/AIDS in Africa alone. In 2011, 1.7 million people world-wide died from AIDS.
Discovered Treatment
However, only 5 of the 10 million positive HIV patients were able to receive treatment.
Questions
2. What kind of impact do you think this issue has on pregnant women?
3. How could Africa have prevented this epidemic?
Answers
2. It has been discovered that a pregnant women not treated with proper drugs, has a 20-45% chance that her infant will receive the virus from pregnancy alone. 59% of HIV-positive individuals in Africa are women, the majority of children diagnosed with HIV get the virus form their mothers.
3. African government has denied HIV and AIDS an issue. Because of this, HIV and AIDS have been given time to spread throughout the continent, affecting millions.