Mali
Access To Life / Mali
Paolo PellegrinIn Mali, HIV is transmitted mainly through sexual contact, and about 1.7 percent of Mali’s population of more than 12 million is infected. The stigma surrounding AIDS is still strong, but a tradition of polygamous marriage adds to the challenge of preventing transmission.
Yet efforts to prevent and treat AIDS have expanded rapidly, and health centers are now able to provide free testing and treatment throughout the country.
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Russia
Access To Life / Russia
Alex MajoliAfter the fall of the Soviet Union, a wave of drug use swept over Russia, addicting hundreds of thousands of young people. With heroin injection came the spread of HIV, rapidly infecting more than 1 million Russians. Russia’s is among the world’s most rapidly expanding AIDS epidemics, and frequently, those infected are diagnosed too late to be saved.
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Swaziland
Access To Life / Swaziland
Larry TowellSwaziland has the highest rate of HIV infection in the world, with more than one quarter of its population infected. Some 130,000 children have been orphaned or made vulnerable by the death of one or both of their parents. With so many infected, AIDS is impacting every aspect of life in Swaziland.
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India
Access To Life / India
Jim GoldbergIndia’s AIDS epidemic has been fueled mainly by unprotected sex. Estimates are that more than 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV. Women are particularly at risk of having the virus passed to them by their husbands or regular partners, who have been infected through paid sex. In some parts of India, injected drugs also play a significant role in the spread of HIV.
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Rwanda
Access To Life / Rwanda
Gilles PeressDespite its troubled recent history, Rwanda’s rapid effort to combat AIDS has made free lifelong treatment available to 44,000 people—up from 4,000 people who had started treatment just five years ago. Rwanda stands out as one of the success stories in Africa, and is a model for how health care can reach all communities. Yet AIDS remains a serious health problem in a country rebuilding from war and genocide.
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Haiti
Access To Life / Haiti
Jonas BendiksenHaiti and the Dominican Republic together account for three-quarters of HIV infections in the Caribbean. Although it is one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti is making steady progress in providing antiretroviral therapy to people with AIDS. Transmission of HIV happens mainly through unprotected sex, and while condom use is becoming more accepted in cities, poor women in rural areas remain at high risk of being infected.
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Vietnam
Access To Life / Vietnam
Steve McCurryThe percentage of Vietnam’s population infected with HIV is still low, at less than 1 percent. Most Vietnamese living with HIV became infected through contaminated needles while injecting drugs, and within this group, the rate of infection is radically higher. Because heroin and other drugs are cheap and casual use is common, HIV infection through drug use affects a larger part of the population in Vietnam than in many other countries.
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South Africa
Access To Life / South Africa
Larry TowellWith more than 5.5 million people living with HIV, South Africa remains the country with the highest number of infected people in the world. As in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the face of AIDS is more and more a female one, and in some areas of South Africa, women are three times as likely to be infected as men.
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Peru
Access To Life / Peru
Eli ReedAIDS in Peru has hit men who have sex with men, drug users, and commercial sex workers the hardest. Programs that make free AIDS treatment available require a person to pass “adherence” testing, showing that they have family or community support to help them stay on treatment.
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