What Countries Are Most Affected by AIDS?

Though countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have effective HIV treatment programs to help keep the HIV epidemic under control, not all nations are so lucky. A number of countries around the world are still being hit hard by the epidemic, including some surprising locations.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that has been most heavily hit by the AIDS epidemic. While some countries in this region have very low rates of infection, others such as Botswana and Swaziland have up to 25 percent of their total adult populations living with the virus.

India and Asia

• There are more than 2 million people living with HIV and AIDS in India alone, with the rest of the Asian continent having even more astounding numbers. The large number of HIV and AIDS patients in India and Asia is due primarily to the large portion of the world population that lives in Asia.

Eastern Europe

• Russia and the Baltic states are the hardest hit countries in Eastern Europe. Over half a million HIV cases have been registered in Russia alone, with the number growing by the tens of thousands each year.

Caribbean Islands

• Surprisingly, some of the Caribbean Islands have had worse epidemics than any other countries in the world with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. Especially hard-hit are the Bahamas, with 3 percent of their total population being infected. Less than half of these individuals are receiving anti-HIV treatment.

Latin and South America

• Several Latin and South American countries such as Brazil and Belize have especially high numbers of HIV and AIDS patients. More than 730,000 individuals are infected with HIV in Brazil alone.