How common is HIV?
HIV is a global pandemic, which means the condition has been spread across the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 33 million people around the world are currently infected with HIV. It is also estimated that 25 million people have died of HIV since the pandemic began in 1981. The virus is particularly widespread in sub-Saharan Africa – the African countries that lay south of the Sahara Desert, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. In the UK, there are 73,000 people living with HIV and experts believe that 30% of people with HIV do not know they have the condition. The number of people who are diagnosed with HIV has been rising since the beginning of the 21st century. It is thought that this is due to people wrongly thinking that HIV is no longer a threat to the public health.
