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Key facts on HIV epidemic and progress in regions and countries in 2010

Based on Progress report 2011: Global HIV/AIDS response

Asia

Approximately 922 000 people in Asia, or 39% of those in need, had access to ART in 2010, up from 33% in 2009. ART coverage is higher among women (48%) than men (34%). Cambodia is the only country in Asia that has achieved the universal access target for ART.

Around 39% of children in need of paediatric HIV treatment were able to access it. Around 16% of pregnant women living with HIV were receiving effective antiretroviral prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmission and protect their health (excluding single-dose nevirapine).

About 4.8 million people were living with HIV in Asia in 2010. Nearly half (49%) of all people living with HIV in Asia are in India.

There were an estimated 350 000 new infections in the region in 2010, as compared to 450 000 estimated for 2001.

The number of children newly infected with HIV in Asia declined by 23% between 2001 and 2010. However, an opposite trend is evident in East Asia, where the incidence of HIV infection rose by 31% (from 1 600 to 2 200 children newly infected) in that same period.

An estimated 310 000 people died from AIDS-related causes in 2010 – the largest death toll outside Sub-Saharan Africa.

Seven countries report an estimated 100 000 or more people living with HIV in 2009, collectively accounting for more than 90% of people with HIV in the region. The countries are: India, China, Thailand (the only country in the region in which prevalence is close to 1%), Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Viet Nam (listed in order of the number of people living with HIV in each).

Various combinations of injecting drug use, unprotected sex between men and unprotected paid sex fuel the epidemics in this region, with paid sex especially prominent in the more mature epidemics.

An estimated 4.5 million people in Asia inject drugs; more than half of these live in China.

High HIV prevalence – between 8% and 32% – has been found among surveyed men who have sex with men in cities in Indonesia (8% in Jakarta), India (up to 18% in the south), and Myanmar (29%).