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| Adult HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate (2007) |
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| Belarus
(%) |
| 0.2% |
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| Notes and Sources: Show | Hide |
Notes: Data are estimates. UNAIDS recently updated global and regional data to reflect 2008 estimates. Therefore, the global entry above is a 2008 estimate; country entries are 2007 estimates. For most countries, UNAIDS provides estimates as well as ranges around the estimates that define the boundaries within which the actual numbers lie. For some countries, UNAIDS provides only a range or an upper boundary to a range. These data were included above as appropriate.
HIV/AIDS estimates reflect improved and expanded HIV surveillance, country data collection, and methodologies as well as an increased understanding of the natural course of the epidemic. As a result, since 2007, there have been substantial revisions from previous published estimates. For more information on these revisions as well as other factors impacting HIV/AIDS estimates, see Sexually Transmitted Infections, ''Improved Data, Methods and Tools for the 2007 HIV and AIDS Estimates and Projections'', August 2008, available at: http://sti.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/84/Suppl_1/i1, and ''Understanding the Latest Estimates of theGlobal AIDS Epidemic'', available at: http://data.unaids.org/pub/EPISlides/2009/20091117_QA_Methodology_Ba....
Definitions: HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV can be transmitted through infected blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk, and during pregnancy or delivery. HIV destroys certain white blood cells called CD4+ T cells. These cells are critical to the normal function of the human immune system, which defends the body against illness. When HIV weakens the immune system, a person is more susceptible to developing a variety of cancers and becoming infected with viruses, bacteria and parasites. The disease has four stages: primary or acute HIV infection, asymptomatic, symptomatic, and advanced HIV disease (AIDS).
AIDS: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. A disease of the body's immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A person who tests positive for HIV is considered to have progressed to AIDS when a laboratory test shows that his or her immune system is severely weakened by the virus or when he or she develops at least one of about 25 different opportunistic infections -- diseases that might not affect a person with a normal immune system but that take advantage of damaged immune systems. People who have not had one of these opportunistic infections, but whose immune system is severely damaged, are also considered to have progressed to an AIDS diagnosis.
HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate: Number of people estimated to be living with HIV, at any disease stage, including AIDS.
Sources: Global total available at UNAIDS, 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update, 2009: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArc.... Country totals available at UNAIDS, 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, 2008: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2....
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