What's it got to do with me?
Imagine you're 35 and you log on to Friends Reunited to find that half of your former classmates have died.
This gives you an idea of the reality of HIV in some countries. Half the people who contract the virus do so before their 25th birthday. And, without treatment, they’re likely to die before they reach 35.
Twenty-five years ago no one had even heard of HIV. How things have changed.
33 million people around the world are HIV-positive
28 million people have died
12 million children in Africa have been orphaned.
HIV claims more than 5,700 lives daily – that’s five people, every minute of every day.
Poor plague
Wherever you live, if you're poor, you're more at risk of contracting HIV.
Ninety-six per cent of people with HIV live in the developing world.
AIDS-related diseases are now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
If you're poor and female your chances of becoming HIV-positive are even higher. Three in four young people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female.
A 15-year-old in Botswana has an 80 per cent chance of dying of an AIDS-related disease.
It's not uncommon these days for women in the UK to have their first baby in their forties. In some African countries, life expectancy rates have now fallen below 40 years because of HIV.
How did we let things get so out of control?
I'm straight – HIV has nothing to do with me
HIV can affect anyone. It doesn’t discriminate. White, black, mother of three, married, bachelor, sex worker or grandmother – no one is immune. Do you know your status?
India is now the country with the largest total number of people living with HIV – 5.7 million – and 38 per cent are women.
Since 1999, the most common way to contract HIV has been through heterosexual sex.
In India, up to six per cent of women attending antenatal clinics are infected. Most of these women report having had sexual contact with just one partner – their husbands.
Drugs work – if you can get them
HIV plays host to a spectrum of interesting guests – but not the sort you'd want around for dinner. Opportunistic diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis feed on depleted immune systems. Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) help fight these diseases – if you can afford to buy them.
But taking antiretrovirals on an empty stomach can make you sick. If you're sick, you can't work; if you can't work, you can’t earn money for food. If you're hungry, you're going to get sicker. It's a vicious cycle.