Countries With Highest Cases of HIV infection

The HIV that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has led to the death of over 36 million people.

The most common type of HIV is HIV-1, identified in 1984. HIV-2, was first discovered in West Africa in 1986. It causes a loss of immune function and the subsequent development
of opportunistic infections identical to those associated with HIV-1 infections.

According to statistics and figures largely from World Health Organisation and CIA World Factbook, (2012) South Africa still retains the top position in terms of prevalence of HIV with prevalence rate of 17.3% followed by Nigeria(3.7) and India(0.3%). Of course this statistics could be incomplete due to numbers of undiagnosed cases and deaths.

Sub-Saharan Africa still remain the region with the highest number of cases with over 60% of the world infection of AIDS. Most people living with HIV still lack access to medication and proper sensitisation. Cape Verde remain the African country with the lowest cases.

Country
people living with HIV/AIDS as of 2012
South Africa
6,070,800

Nigeria
3,426,600

India
2,085,000

Kenya
1,646,000

Mozambique
1,554,700

Uganda
1,549,200

Tanzania
1,472,400

Zimbabwe
1,368,100

United States
1,200,000

Malawi
1,129,800

HIV major causes include unprotected sexual intercourse, contaminated blood needles syringes and transfer from mother to child in the womb.



However, National Agency for the Control of AIDS(NACA) has announced that HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Nigeria has dropped from 5.1 per cent to 3.4 per cent