13 facts about HIV/AIDS ahead of World AIDS Day

13 facts about HIV/AIDS ahead of World AIDS Day

HIV/AIDS remains one of the world's most significant public health challenges.

World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 is used to unite people in the fight against HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus first identified in 1984, to show their support for people living with HIV and commemorate those who have died.

The member countries of the United Nations agreed in September in a new set of global goals to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Here are some facts about AIDS in 2015 with data from the World Health Organisation, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF, and UNAIDS:

1. Globally about 36.9 million people are living with HIV including 2.6 million children.

2. An estimated 2 million were infected in 2014.

3. An estimated 34 million people have died from HIV or AIDS, including 1.2 million in 2014.

4. The number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled over the last 15 years.

5. AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa and the second among adolescents globally.

6. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest prevalence, girls account for 7 in 10 new infections among those aged 15-19.

7. At start of 2015, 15 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy compared to 1 million in 2001.

8. Despite widespread availability of HIV testing, only an estimated 51 percent of people with HIV know their status.

9. The global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million deaths since 2000.

10. In 2015, Cuba was the first country declared to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

11. 17% of men who have sex with men (MSM) are living with HIV in Nigeria.1 They are the only key affected population that actually experienced a rise in HIV prevalence between 2007 and 2010, now accounting for 10% of all new HIV infections in the country.

12. 3.4 million Nigerians live with HIV

13. Of these, 430,000 are children under 14, according to a recent report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Nigeria accounts for one third of all new infections among children in the 20 worst hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa.