HIV/AIDS the Facts

Russian Federation - A child care worker does a skit for 3 orphans aged 2 and under in an orphanage. They are unlikely to be adopted because they have HIV. © UNICEF HQ04-0695/Giacomo Pirozzi

• HIV/AIDS is now the fourth biggest cause of death in the world.

• Every minute of every day six young people between the ages of 15 and 24 become HIV-positive.

• More than a third of all people living with HIV/AIDS are under 25, and almost two-thirds of them are women.

• Nine out of ten children with HIV or AIDS are African.

• Fourteen million children under 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

• HIV/AIDS is spreading the fastest in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

• In some countries, up to 90 per cent of people who are HIV positive do not know they carry the virus.

• India is home to the world’s second largest HIV-positive population.

• Education has been proven to be the surest way to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the world.  Young people are the most likely to listen and then to protect themselves.