HIV surveillance, estimates, monitoring and evaluation

An estimated 33.3 million people were living with HIV in 2009, of whom 2.5 million were children. Around 2.6 million new infections occurred in 2009 with 1.8 million (69%) of these in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, 1.8 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses.

The health sector plays a key role in the response to the epidemic towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. At the end of 2009, 5.25 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy, reaching 36% of people in need (using the WHO 2010 criterion for treatment initiation at a cell count of ≤350 cells/mm3). About 53% of pregnant women with HIV received antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission in 2009.

Strategic information on the epidemic and the response is essential to guide programme planning and implementation, sustain commitment, and ensure accountability. WHO and UNAIDS develop standards, guidelines and tools to improve HIV surveillance and generate the best estimates of the HIV epidemic in a country. Using various sources of data, including HIV prevalence in different population groups and household surveys, WHO and UNAIDS work with national AIDS programmes to generate and publish country and global updates on a regular basis.

WHO also takes the lead in monitoring and evaluation of the health sector response to HIV. WHO provides assistance to countries to set national targets for key interventions and to monitor progress against relevant indicators. A global report on progress in the health sector towards universal access is published each year, bringing together data from national programmes, surveys and scientific literature.