Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

Annex 2. HIV/AIDS estimates and data, end 1999Annex 2.HIV/AIDS estimates and data, end 1999The estimates and data provided in the following table relate to the end of 1999unless stated otherwise. They are given in rounded numbers. However, unroundednumbers were used in the calculation of rates and regional totals, so there may besmall discrepancies between the regional/global totals and the sum of the countryfigures.Adults in this report are defined as men and women aged 15–49. This age rangecaptures those in their most sexually active years. While the risk of HIV infectionobviously continues beyond 50, the vast majority of those with substantial riskbehaviour are likely to have become infected by this age. Since population structuresdiffer greatly from one country to another, especially for children and the upperadult ages, the restriction of “adults” to 15–49-year-olds has the advantage of makingdifferent populations more comparable. This age range was used as the denominatorin calculating the adult HIV prevalence rate.The methodology used to produce the country-specific estimates in the table hasbeen described in full elsewhere (Schwartländer et al. AIDS 1999; 13:2445–2458).Notes on specific indicators listed in the table1. People living with HIV/AIDS, end 1999These estimates include all people with HIV infection, whether or not they havedeveloped symptoms of AIDS, alive at the end of 1999.For country estimates marked with an asterisk, not enough data were available to producean estimate of HIV prevalence for end 1999. For each of these countries the 1994prevalence rate published by the WHO Global Programme on AIDS (Weekly epidemiologicalrecord 1995; 70:353–360) was applied to the country’s 1999 adult populationto produce the estimates given in the table. No country-specific models were producedfor countries marked with an asterisk. For data columns containing few or nocountry estimates, the regional totals were calculated on the basis of a regional model.119