Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS

In 1999 and during the first quarter of 2000, UNAIDS and WHO worked closely with national governments and research institutions to recalculate current estimates on people living with HIV/AIDS. These calculations are based on the previously published estimates for 1997 and recent trends in HIV/AIDS surveillance in various populations. A methodology developed in collaboration with an international group of experts was used to calculate the new estimates on prevalence and incidence of HIV and AIDS deaths, as well as the number of children infected through mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Different approaches were used to estimate HIV prevalence in countries with low-level, concentrated or generalized epidemics. The current estimates do not claim to be an exact count of infections. Rather, they use a methodology that has thus far proved accurate in producing estimates that give a good indication of the magnitude of the epidemic in individual countries. However, these estimates are constantly being revised as countries improve their surveillance systems and collect more information.

Adults in this report are defined as women and men aged 15 to 49. This age range covers people in their most sexually active years. While the risk of HIV infection obviously continues beyond the age of 50, the vast majority of those who engage in substantial risk behaviours are likely to be infected by this age. The 15 to 49 age range was used as the denominator in calculating adult HIV prevalence.

Estimated number of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS, end of 1999

These estimates include all people with HIV infection, whether or not they have developed symptoms of AIDS, alive at the end of 1999

Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS

Estimated number of adults and children who died of AIDS during 1999:

Estimated number of orphans

Estimated number of children who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS (while they were under the age of 15) since the beginning of the epidemic:

Estimated number of children who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS and who were alive and under age 15 at the end of 1999:

Assessment of epidemiological situation - Lesotho

HIV information among antenatal clinic attendees is available from sentinel surveillance studies beginning in 1991. The sentinel surveillance sites selected are from the lowlands and do not include women from the mountain areas. In Maseru, the major urban area, 6 percent of antenatal clinic women tested HIV positive in 1991 and 1993. However, in 1994, HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees rose dramatically to 31 percent. There is no recent data from Maseru. HIV prevalence among women tested in Leribe, Maluti, Mafeteng and Quthing increased from 2 percent in 1991 to 27 percent in 1999.

There is no information available on HIV prevalence among sex workers.

HIV sentinel surveillance information is available for STD clinic patients since the late 1980s. In Maseru, HIV prevalence among STD clinic patients tested increased from 1 percent in 1989 to 11 percent in 1993. There is no recent information from Maseru. Outside of Maseru, HIV prevalence among male STD clinic patients increased from 5 percent in 1991 to 41 percent in 1999.