Global summary of the AIDS epidemic
December 2006

Number of people living with HIV in 2006
Total 39.5 million
Adults 37.2 million
Women 17.7 million
Children under 15 years 2.3 million

People newly infected with HIV in 2006
Total 4.3 million
Adults 3.8 million
Children under 15 years 530,000

AIDS deaths in 2006
Total 2.9 million
Adults 2.6 million
Children under 15 years 380,000


To date around 65 million people have been infected with HIV and AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981.

The vast majority of the 38.6 million people living with HIV in 2005 are unaware of their status.

In 2005 AIDS claimed the lives of 2.8 million people and over 4 million people were newly infected with the virus.

At around 17.3 million, women make up almost half of the total number of people living with the virus.

Worldwide, less than one in five people at risk of becoming infected with HIV has access to basic prevention services.. Across the world, only one in eight people who want to be tested are currently able to do so.

Each day, 1500 children worldwide become infected with HIV, the vast majority of them newborns.

In 2005, 9% of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries were offered services to prevent transmission to their newborns.

Scaling up available prevention strategies in 125 low- and middle-income countries would avert an estimated 28 million new infections between 2005 and 2015, more than half of those that are projected to occur during this period and would save US$24 billion in associated treatment costs.

--Statistics from the "UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2006"