More than 33 million peope are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide

Globally an estimated number of 33.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007. In 2007, the estimated number of deaths due to AIDS was 2.1 million worldwide, of which 76% occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, there were approximately 1.6 million people living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and a total of 55,000 have died of AIDS. In Western and Central Europe the number of people living with HIV was much lower (760,000), and the number of people who died from AIDS was 12,000. For mortality rates by country and by larger region, see: Trends in mortality (SDR) from HIV/AIDS in selected countries, and the Trends in AIDS mortality in four European regions. As a large number of AIDS cases and deaths are not reported, the actual infection and death rates are most likely higher (UNAIDS, 2007).

Antiviral therapy causes a decline in AIDS mortality in Europe

The decline in AIDS death rates that is observed in most European countries, is due to the life-prolonging effects of effective antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In the EUROSIDA study, the number of deaths dropped from 14.6 per 100 persons/year in the pre-HAART period to 9.3 per 100 in the early-HAART period to 2.6 in the late-HAART period (Mocroft et al., 2003)