Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, with southern Africa remaining the area most heavily affected by it. In 2008, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 67 percent of HIV infections worldwide, 68 percent of new HIV infections among adults and 91 percent of new HIV infections among children. The region also accounted for 72 percent of the world’s AIDS-related deaths in 2008. 75 percent of all HIV infections are young women aged 15 to 24. As of 2007, an estimated 47.5 million children in sub-Saharan Africa had lost one or both parents to AIDS or other causes.

According to WHO, nearly a million people died of malaria in 2006, 95 percent of them lived in sub-Saharan Africa, and the vast majority was children under five. Between 190 million and 330 million episodes of malaria occurred that year, with 88 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. The risk of dying from malaria is considerably higher in sub-Saharan Africa than other parts of the world for several reasons: transmission of the disease is more intense, the more lethal form of the malaria parasite — Plasmodium falciparum — is more abundant, and the region tends to have weak health systems.

(Sources: “ChildInfo. Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women”, UNICEF based on UNAIDS and WHO, AIDS Epidemic Update, 2009; “The Global Gender Gap Report”, 2009, World Economic Forum; “The Millennium Development Goals Report”, 2009, UN) (CSD)