HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. As of 2010, according to the online

encyclopaedia ‘Wikipedia’,  approximately 34 million people have HIV worldwide. Of these, approximately 16.8 million are women and 3.4 million are less than 15 years old. There were about 1.8 million deaths from AIDS in 2010, down from 3.1 million in 2001.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected. In 2010, an estimated 68% (22.9 million) of all HIV cases and 66% of all deaths (1.2 million) occurred in this region. This means that about 5% of the adult population is infected.
Here,  in contrast to other regions, women compose nearly 60% of cases. South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world at 5.9 million.
South & South-East Asia (a region with about 2 billion people as of 2010, over 30% of the global population) have an estimated 4 million cases (12% of all people living with HIV), with about 250,000 deaths in 2010.
Approximately 2.5 million of these cases are in India, where however the prevalence is only about 0.3% (somewhat higher than that found in Western and Central Europe or Canada). Prevalence is lowest in East Asia at 0.1%.
In 2008,  approximately 1.2 million people in the United States had HIV; 20% did not realise that they were infected. It resulted in about 17,500 deaths. In the United Kingdom as of 2009 there were approximately 86,500 cases and 516 deaths. In Canada as of 2008 there were about 65,000 cases and 53 deaths.
Since AIDS was first recognised in 1981 and 2009 it has led to nearly 30 million deaths, according to Wikipedia.
Africa has been hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic with many countries on the continent devastated by this dreaded disease.
In Somalia and Senegal, the HIV prevalence is under 1% of the adult population, whereas in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe around 10-15% of adults are infected with HIV. Southern Africa is the worst impacted by AIDS; in South Africa the HIV prevalence is 17.8% and in three other southern African countries, the national adult HIV prevalence rate now exceeds 20%. These countries are Botswana (24.8%), Lesotho (23.6%) and Swaziland (25.9%).4
West Africa has been less affected by HIV and AIDS, but some countries are experiencing rising HIV prevalence rates. In Cameroon, HIV prevalence is now estimated at 5.3% and in Gabon it stands at 5.2%. In Nigeria, HIV prevalence is low (3.6%) compared to the rest of Africa. However, because of its large population (it is the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa), this equates to around 3.3 million people living with HIV.
Adult HIV prevalence in East Africa exceeds 5% in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.6
Overall, rates of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa appear to have peaked in the late 1990s, and HIV prevalence seems to have declined slightly, although it remains at an extremely high level of 5 percent among adults.
Closer home in Latin America, the situation has been similarly devastating as at the end of 2008 there were around 2 million people living with HIV in Latin America – more than in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the UK combined. While this Region has often been overlooked in the past, there is now growing recognition amongst the international community that the HIV epidemics of Latin American countries demand more attention than they have received so far.
Latin American countries have been affected by HIV and AIDS in different ways, and to different extents. Responses have varied, with some countries displaying weak political leadership and others – most notably Brazil – forming strong and positive responses. Despite many differences between the epidemics of individual countries, high levels of poverty, migration, homophobia and HIV-related discrimination are apparent throughout the Region, and these factors present common barriers to overcoming the crisis.
Here in Guyana commendable efforts have been mounted by the Ministry of Health/NAPS, NGOs and other organisations in the HIV/AIDS fight. But while considerable progress has been made in the battle against the dreaded pandemic, a huge challenge still looms ahead.
Unfortunately, many people still are not following the advice being given by medical experts and this, apart from the fact that there is no cure, makes the fight even more challenging and complicated.
However, what is encouraging is that organisations are increasingly joining in the HIV/AIDS battle. Notably, our army recently has thrown its full weight in the battle, as it commissioned its medical annexe.
The Guyana Defence Force HIV/AIDS prevention programme, in line with the President’s Relief Fund for HIV/AIDS, transitioning from emergency response to reporting sustainability in this continuous battle to mitigate HIV/AIDS, has recognised the need for further development of the medical infrastructure to support HIV testing and counselling for sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis diagnosis, as part of PEPFAR’s vision for strengthening work, will be continuing with their partners, one of which is the GDF.
“We will continue to provide assistance to the GDF medical facility, to develop structural capacity which will provide clinical care for the HIV positive members and for our military members,” said Programme Coordinator of the army’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme Ms. Beverley Gomes-Lovell.
This move is a most encouraging and enlightening one by our army and one would hope it would inspire and motivate other organisations to come on board the HIV/AIDS fight.