Situation analysis of HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa

At the end of 1997 about twenty one million persons were living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, representing almost two third of the world's total. Three broadly defined areas, which include countries with severe epidemics and others with epidemics at their intermediate stage, account for almost 90% of all current HIV infections in tropical Africa. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the current data show very high increases in HIV/AIDS incidence as well as serious underreporting of the disease in the last five years. Sub-Saharan Africa has been particularly hard hit by the disease because of a combination of poor social and health education and also because of other endemic sexually transmitted diseases which significantly increase the chance of HIV transmission.