AIDS has become a global crisis. As of the end of 2005, an estimated 42 million people worldwide - 38 million adults and about 3 million children younger than 15 years - were living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately two-thirds of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa; another 18 percent live in Asia and the Pacific. The pandemic kills millions, destroys families and communities and renders millions of children parentless. It threatens the social and economic fabric of many nations.
