African Countries with the Highest Rates of HIV

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The spread of HIV/ADIDS has been tracked for years, and African countries remain at the forefront for highest infection rates. The following are the African countries with the highest HIV/AIDS rates as a percentage of their population, based on recent estimates in the 2012 CIA Factbook. These countries continue to face the difficult task of keeping their populations safe and healthy.

SWAZILAND

 

1. Swaziland – 26.5 percent: The tiny landlocked kingdom of Swaziland in Southern Africa suffers from the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, in large part due to cultural beliefs that discourage safe-sex practices. Swaziland has been successful in increasing access to antiretroviral drug treatment. More than 80 percent of those in need are able to access the drugs. HIV testing is becoming more prevalent, but educators have to fight the stigma associated with HIV to encourage everyone, and young people especially, to learn their status and take preventive measures.

2. Lesotho – 23.1 percent: The second-highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Africa can be found in Lesotho, where crippling poverty and lack of education and awareness have made it difficult to curb the epidemic. The government mounted its National AIDS Strategic Plan and established the Lesotho AIDS Program Coordinating Authority in an effort to step up prevention efforts. It continues to subscribe to international efforts headed by the World Health Organization to increase citizens’ access to antiretroviral drug treatment.

LESOTHO

3. Botswana – 23 percent: Botswana has made headlines for nationalizing free antiretroviral drug treatment through public health services for all those living with HIV/AIDS. The number of infected is nearly a quarter of the population. The government has amped up school-based HIV/AIDS education, and continues to try and find new methods to reach those who have already aged out of school but represent a high-risk group.

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4. South Africa – 17.90 percent: South Africa’s near 18-percent HIV rate translates to nearly 5.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. While prevention programs continue to ramp up, South Africa has also rolled out the largest antiretroviral treatment program in the world, drastically increasing access to the lifesaving drugs in urban and rural areas, and increasing life expectancy for those living with the disease by more than five years. South Africa has also struggled with its enormous population of children left orphaned by HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 1.9 million children have had one or both parents die from AIDS in South Africa.

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SOUTH AFRICA

5. Zimbabwe – 14.70 percent: Continuing political strife in Zimbabwe has hindered efforts to address the country’s high HIV prevalence, along with several other major health crises that have diverted attention, including a severe cholera epidemic and the caving in of the public health system. Due to difficult governmental circumstances, HIV prevention efforts have been spearheaded by the nonprofit sector, but often face a lack of sufficient funding.

ZIMBABWE

6. Namibia – 13.30 percent: Though the numbers have dropped far below the 22-percent rate reported in 2002, Namibia still struggles to curb its epidemic. Government programs aimed at increasing prevention education have become mainstreamed into all development projects. Antiretroviral treatment has been made accessible throughout the country, even in remote rural areas — a difficult task, given that Namibia is the second most sparsely populated country in the world.

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7. Zambia – 12.70 percent: Despite an influx of foreign aid and attention, Zambia’s HIV epidemic has not seen much of abatement, and the infection rates have remained steady since the 1990s. In contrast to many of its neighbors, Zambia’s HIV epidemic affects more than just the underprivileged class. Data show that infection rates are actually quite high among the wealthier and more educated people. Increasing urbanization has had an impact. Urban areas have become more crowded, and just a third of the population lives in rural areas.

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8. Mozambique – 11.10 percent: In 2004, the rapid increase in prevalence of HIV in Mozambique led the government to declare the epidemic a national emergency. The rate hit 16.4 percent among the 15-to-49-year-old population. The country faces additional difficulties without enough doctors. In recent years, it’s been estimated there are just three doctors for every 100,000 people in Mozambique.MOZANBIQUE

9. Malawi – 10.80 percent: AIDS has been the leading cause of death among adults in Malawi for several years, though HIV prevalence has begun to decline. In 2003, more than 100,000 new infections were reported, whereas 46,000 new cases were recorded in 2011. The government is credited for counteracting the disease, but continues to face challenges in funding, as well as a gaping lack of data on high-risk groups and a dearth of human resources needed to obtain it.

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MALAWI

10. Uganda – 7.20 percent: The 7.20 percent of Uganda’s population living with HIV amounts to nearly 1.4 million people, including an estimated 190,000 children. While access to antiretroviral treatment has increased, so has the prevalence of the disease, and it’s often assumed that the two are connected. As it becomes easier to obtain the lifesaving treatment for HIV/AIDS, the urgency with which people seek out HIV/AIDS testing and the measures they take for protection have declined. Of the people living with HIV in Uganda, nearly a quarter are involved in HIV/AIDS education in some respect, either as students or staff.

UGANDA

11. Equatorial Guinea – 6.2 percent: Equatorial Guinea is No. 11 in Africa and the world for HIV. Roughly 31,400 people lived with HIV in this West African country, and in 2012 about 1,400 died of the disease. In 2012, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo announced, “Equatorial Guinea is financing its national programs on school HIV/AIDS prevention, condom distribution and the financing of antiretrovirals for infected populations.” (UNAids.org)

EQUATORIAL GUNIEA

 12. Kenya – 6.1 percent: HIV was first detected in Kenya in 1984, and by 1996 roughly 10.5 percent of the population was infected. Antiretroviral drugs have helped bring the numbers down to 6.1 percent as of 2012, but there are still 1.6 million people living with the disease. The highest prevalence is found in men who sleep with men, with up to 24.5 percent of that population in the city of Mombasa said to be infected. Female sex workers have the highest rates of HIV infection in the country, at almost 30 percent (2011 study). As of 2012, 4.2 percent of Kenyan men and 6.9 percent of Kenyan women were living with HIV.

KENYA

13. Tanzania – 5.1 percent: Around 5 percent of Tanzanians carry the HIV virus, with some regions going much higher, such as Iringa, at 16 percent, compared to Arusha, said to have 2 percent of the region’s citizens testing positive for HIV. In 2011 there were about 150,000 new cases–roughly 400 a day. A 2005 study found that the wealthier Tanzanians had a higher prevalence of HIV, especially wealthy women. These statistics lead academics to believe that people with more money in East Africa have a wider social network, therefore are more sexually active. Offshore on semi-autonomous Zanzibar, the number of infected is very low (0.6 percent) compared to the mainland.

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TANZANIA

 14. Central African Republic – 4.7 percent: One of the most continuously turbulent countries in the world has seen its share of death from human-inflicted violence in recent years, with 114,000 displaced people. As of 2009, 113,000 people were living with the HIV virus, with 11,000 reported deaths from the epidemic that year. The high mother-t0-child transmission rates is lowered through antiretroviral drugs, although funding is limited in this country, funneled more towards wartime relief efforts.

CENTRAL REPUBLIC

15. Cameroon – 4.5 percent: Infant and mother mortality has spiked in Cameroon in the last two decades, and in 2005, those rates were at higher levels than in 1990. HIV/AIDS has much to do with this. In a country of more than 23 million an estimated 600,500 people were living with the HIV virus in 2012, with 34,600 deaths from the disease that year. Community home-based programs such as Chantal Biya’s Mother and Child Care Centre, aimed to care for women and children who tested positive but would otherwise not seek further care.

CAMEROON

16. Guinea-Bissau – 3.9 percent: A small country of nearly 1,700,000 located on the West African coast, Guinea-Bissau has a low life expectancy, averaging at 49.87 years, and a high infant mortality rate — 90.92 deaths per 1,000 births. In 2011, 41,300 citizens had the HIV virus. The Brazilian government in alliance with UNICEF and UNAIDS launched a massive pediatric care program in Guinea-Bissau to give antiretroviral drugs to any child with HIV, in line with Millennium Development Goal No. 6.

GUNIEA BISSAU

Sources: CIA.gov, Avert.org, Wikipedia.org, UNICEF.org, UNAids.org, afkinsider.com