FACTBOX: Africa still faces biggest burden of HIV/AIDS

(Reuters) - Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, almost 60 million people have been infected with HIV and 25 million people have died of HIV-related causes.

As World Aids Day is marked on Tuesday, globally some 33.4 million people were living with HIV. There were 2 million AIDS-related deaths in 2008 according to UNAIDS.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected, accounting for 67 percent of all people living with HIV and 91 percent of all new infections among children.

Here are some key details about AIDS in AFRICA:

* AIDS IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA:

* Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 72 percent of AIDS-related deaths with 1.4 million in 2008.

* An estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, bringing to 22.4 million the number of Africans living with HIV.

* The nine countries in southern Africa continue each have an adult HIV prevalence greater than 10 percent.

* With an adult prevalence of 26 percent in 2007, Swaziland has the world's most severe level of infection. Lesotho's epidemic seems to have stabilized, with a prevalence of 23.2 percent in 2008.

* South Africa continues to be home to the world's largest population of people living with HIV -- 5.7 million in 2007.

* By the end of 2008, 44 percent of adults and children in the region in need of anti-retroviral therapy had access to treatment. Five years earlier, the regional treatment coverage was only 2 percent.

* In Kenya, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 29 percent since 2002.

* Women and girls are disproportionally affected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 60 percent of infections.

* Drops in HIV incidence have been reported among women in Zambia and Tanzania. Zimbabwe has also experienced a steady fall in HIV prevalence since the late 1990s, due to changes in sexual behavior.

* EAST, WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA:

* In East Africa, HIV prevalence seems to have stabilized and in some settings may be declining.

* In Burundi, HIV prevalence fell to 3.8 percent from 4 percent among young people aged 15 to 24 in urban areas between 2002 and 2008. However HIV prevalence increased in rural areas from 2.2 to 2.9 percent.

* Although HIV prevalence in West and Central Africa is much lower than in southern Africa, the region nevertheless is home to some serious epidemics including in Ivory Coast, which has a 3.9 percent HIV prevalence and Ghana which has 1.9 percent.

* Seven African countries -- Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Nigeria -- reported that more than 30 percent of all sex workers are living with HIV.

* NORTH AFRICA:

* Throughout the region, HIV prevalence remains low. Exceptions are evident in Djibouti and southern Sudan, where HIV prevalence among pregnant women exceeds one percent.

Sources: Reuters/UNAIDS/ 2009 reports/ www.unaids.org/