HIV/AIDS History How Many People Have Died of HIV? Despite a reversals in AIDS deaths, challenges remain Print By Mark Cichocki, RN Updated February 25, 2018 Names of people who have died of AIDS on the Circle of Friends Memorial (2009). Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News More in HIV/AIDS History Causes & Risk Factors Diagnosis Living With Support & Coping Prevention Related Conditions Symptoms Treatment View All Expanded access to antiretroviral therapy has profoundly lowered the rate of HIV-related deaths, both in the U.S. and globally. Some of the greatest reversal have been seen in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of which accounts for 75 percent of all HIV infections. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this downward trend points us in the right direction toward reaching the goals of placing the majority of the world's HIV population on treatment by 2030. AIDS Death in 2016 According to the WHO, 39 million people have died of HIV since the beginning of the epidemic out of the 76.1 million who had been infected (roughly 52 percent). Moreover, of the 36.7 million people living with HIV today, just over 1.1 million died in 2016, a drop of 35 percent from 2013. In terms of per-country estimates, here is how AIDS-related mortality was distributed among the top 35 affected countries: Nigeria: 160,000South Africa: 110,000India: 62,000Mozambique: 62,000Indonesia: 38,000Kenya: 36,000Tanzania: 33,000Zimbabwe: 30,000Cameroon: 29,000Uganda: 25,000Cote d'Ivoire: 25,000Malawi: 24,000Zambia: 21,000Ethiopia: 20,000Democratic Republic of Congo: 19,000Thailand: 16,000Ghana: 14,000Brazil: 14,000South Sudan: 13,000Angola: 11,000Lesotho: 9,900Ukraine: 8,500Vietnam: 8,000Burma: 7,800Central African Republic: 7,300Malaysia: 7,000Mali: 7,000United States: 6,700Guinea: 5,800Pakistan: 5,500Togo: 5,100Haiti: 4,600Namibia: 4,600Mexico: 4,200Iran: 4,000 The Way Forward According to the WHO, 20.9 million people living with HIV are today treatment globally, up from 17 million in 2015. Newly expanded guidelines now recommend treatment all people living with HIV at the time of diagnosis, irrespective of age, immune status, income, or region. That's than 22 million more than had been previously targeted for treatment. While challenges remain to ending the epidemic, the WHO and United Nation Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have decided the fast-track those goals with their ambitious 90-90-90 strategy which aim to achieve the following goals by 2030: Diagnosing 90 percent of people living with HIV worldwidePlacing 90 percent of the diagnosed population on antiretroviral therapyAchieving an undetectable viral load in 90 percent of people on therapy However, challenge remain as infection rates continue to soar in Russia and Central Asia, due mainly to injecting drug use. Even in countries like South Africa, which has seen a reversal in HIV-related deaths, new infection rates were seen to have increase from 370,000 to 470,000 in the country's latest surveillance report. Even in the United States, HIV remains the seventh leading cause of death in people between the ages of 25 and 44. While that's down from 1995 when it was the leading cause of death, the country's ongoing failure to reduce the new infection rates suggest that little will change in the next decade. To that end, the U.S. has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest HIV incidence and prevalence of all developed, industrialized nations. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Get information on prevention, symptoms, and treatment to better ensure a long and healthy life. Email Address Sign Up There was an error. Please try again. Thank you, , for signing up. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Central Intelligence Agency. "The World Factbook: HIV/AIDS - Deaths." Washington, D.C.; updated 2016. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. "The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the United States." New York, New York; updated December 1, 2017. United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Fast-Track: Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030." Geneva, Switzerland; issued December 1, 2014. World Health Organization. "Global health sector strategy on HIV/AIDS." Geneva, Switzerland; issued December 1, 2017. Continue Reading