GBE Booklet 31 "HIV and AIDS"

Abstract

The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the greatest health problems of our time. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the total number of people living with HIV worldwide at the end of 2005 at almost 40 million people, with five million new HIV infections occurring per year and an annual death toll of three million due to HIV/AIDS related causes. The infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) results, after variable incubation times, in life-threatening illnesses, which arise as a consequence of the virus-induced destruction of the immune defense.