World Bank and HIV/AIDS: The Facts

The world has made great progress toward ending AIDS, yet AIDS remains a critical development challenge.

• Since AIDS first appeared in 1981, more than 65 million people have been infected and more than 30 million people have died of AIDS-related causes.
• AIDS drug costs have dropped 100-fold since 2000 from more than $10,000 to under $100 per person annually. More than 8 million people living with HIV in developing countries are now receiving lifesaving treatment.
• Prevention is essential to ending HIV and AIDS: For every one person on treatment, two are infected with HIV; every minute a young woman is infected with the virus.
• The Bank is committed to work with partners to help realize the end of AIDS, and to bring the lessons of the AIDS movement to speed progress against global poverty.

The World Bank has helped save lives and has reduced the spread of HIV in developing countries.

• Since 1989, global Bank financing for HIV/AIDS has totaled $4.6 billion. The World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program was the first $1 billion commitment to the global AIDS response.
• By 2009, support from the Bank’s Fund for the Poorest, the International Development Association (IDA), had resulted in:
  •  1.5 million women provided with drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission
  • 1,500 new voluntary counseling and testing sites established, enabling nearly 7 million people to be tested for HIV
  • More than 173 million people benefited from HIV prevention services.
  • More than 1 billion condoms distributed.
• The Bank has funded 50,000 community-based organizations in more than 50 countries to tackle HIV and AIDS.
• The Bank has assisted more than 120 countries to understand their AIDS epidemics and develop better prioritized, strategic national AIDS plans.
• With Bank support, India's national AIDS program will have prevented 3 million of 5.5 million estimated HIV infections by 2015.
• A Bank-supported project in West Africa's transport corridor reduced sexually transmitted infections in at-risk groups by 22% over 4 years.
• In Rwanda, integrated, incentivized AIDS service delivery supported by the Bank contributed to a 76% increase in overall utilization of health services.

The Bank works closely with partners the global fight against AIDS.

• As one of 11 UNAIDS co-sponsors, the World Bank partners in the global response to HIV/AIDS with governments, civil society groups, donors, and the private sector.
• The Bank works closely with the US Government’s PEPFAR initiative, USAID, the UK government and others to help developing countries improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of their national AIDS responses,
  • For example, the Bank and its partners are helping Nigeria map its AIDS epidemic so it can better target its HIV/AIDS efforts toward the populations most at risk.
• The Bank is trustee of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and a non-voting member of the Global Fund Board, and works with the Global Fund at global and country levels.