HIV/AIDS has become a harsh reality. Unfortunately, the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS is on the rise despite the fact that reliable preventive measures exist. 

Promising developments have been seen in recent years in global efforts to address the AIDS epidemic, including increased access to effective treatment and prevention programmes. However, the number of people living with HIV continues to grow, as does the number of deaths due to AIDS.

According to the 2006 Global AIDS Epidemic Update, a total of 39.5 people were living with HIV in 2006—2.6 million more than in 2004. This figure includes the estimated 4.3 million adults and children who were newly infected with HIV in 2006, which is about 400 000 more than in 2004.

In many regions of the world, new HIV infections are heavily concentrated among young people (15–24 years of age). Among adults 15 years and older, young people accounted for 40% of new HIV infections in 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of the global epidemic. Two thirds of all adults and children with HIV globally live in sub-Saharan Africa, with its epicentre in southern Africa. One third (32%) of all people with HIV globally live in southern Africa and 34% of all deaths due to AIDS in 2006 occurred there.

Nearly three quarters of all adult and child deaths due to AIDS in 2006 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa: 2.1 million of the global total of 2.9 million. Overall sub-Saharan Africa is home to an estimated 24.7 million adults and children infected with HIV—1.1 million more than in 2004.

In the past two years, the number of people living with HIV increased in every region in the world. The most striking increases have occurred in East Asia and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people living with HIV in 2006 was over one fifth higher than in 2004.

Globally, and in every region, more adult women (15 years or older) than ever before are now living with HIV. The 17.7 million women living with HIV in 2006 represented an increase of over one million compared with 2004.

In sub-Saharan Africa, for every ten adult men living with HIV, there are about 14 adult women who are infected with the virus. Across all age groups, 59% of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2006 were women. In this region, women are more likely than men to be infected with HIV, and they are more likely to be the ones caring for people infected with HIV.

In the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Oceania, close to one in every two adults with HIV is female. Meanwhile, in many countries of Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, the proportions of women living with HIV continue to grow.

However there is a beacon of light. Access to treatment and care has greatly increased in recent years, albeit from a very low starting level in many countries. Nevertheless, the benefits are dramatic. Through the expanded provision of antiretroviral treatment an estimated two million life years were gained since 2002 in low- and middle-income countries. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, some 790 000 life years have been gained, the vast majority of them in the past two years of antiretroviral treatment scale-up. In Latin America, where wide-scale treatment provision began earlier, some 834 000 life years have been gained since 2002.