December 1st is World AIDS Day. Despite global efforts, HIV/AIDS continues to be a major public health concern. UNAIDS estimated that there were 38 million people living with HIV globally in 2019, representing a steady increase from 7.7 million in 1990. Of the 38 million, one third (12.6 million) have yet to receive HIV treatment.
Although the number of deaths due to AIDS has been declining since 2005, 690,000 lives were lost globally to AIDS-related illnesses in 2019 despite the availability of effective and relatively inexpensive treatment regimens. UNAIDS warns that disruption to medical supplies due to COVID-19 could result in many additional AIDS-related deaths.
Roughly 1.7 million people were newly infected by HIV in 2019 which corresponds to around 4,500 new HIV infections a day. The number of new infections has declined by 40% from a peak of 2.8 million in 1998. Nearly 60% of the new HIV infections of adults and children in 2019 were in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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