TEN COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST AND LOWEST PERCENT OF PEOPLE INFECTED WITH HIV/AIDS

So, this week I decided to do my tenner on the ten countries with the highest and lowest percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS. I will start with the highest. I thought it was very interesting that 9 out of the top ten are the most southerly countries in Africa. All but Central African Republic are in the south. I am not sure exactly what that means, whether there are just more people in the South or if they do not have access to prevention drugs, but I thought it was interesting fact. Another thing I found is that it is not just that the population is small or anything. It varies from tiny little Swaziland to South Africa. Well, I guess you are now wondering what these countries I have been talking about are, so I will give you the list of the ten countries with the highest percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS.

Rank	Country	HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate (%)	Date of Information
1	Swaziland	38.80	2003 est.
2	Botswana	37.30	2003 est.
3	Lesotho	28.90	2003 est.
4	Zimbabwe	24.60	2001 est.
5	South Africa	21.50	2003 est.
6	Namibia	21.30	2003 est.
7	Zambia	16.50	2003 est.
8	Malawi	14.20	2003 est.
9	Central African Republic	13.50	2003 est.
10	Mozambique	12.20	2003 est.

That list was fairly predictable. I am sure most of you have heard of the AIDS epidemic in Africa lately. But a new question: what are the ten countries with the lowest percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS? This was interesting. They are all either islands or small countries in Europe or Asia. No common geographic area like with the highest percent of AIDS countries. There is no major variance in size like the previous list. They are just all small countries in the eastern part of the world. And here you have it.

Rank	Country	HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate (%)	Date of information
159	Brunei	0.10	2003 est.
160	Bhutan	0.10	2001 est.
161	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.10	2001 est.
162	Azerbaijan	0.10	2003 est.
163	Armenia	0.10	2003 est.
164	Qatar	0.09	2001 est.
165	Cape Verde	0.04	NA
166	Afghanistan	0.01	2001 est.
167	Saudi Arabia	0.01	2001 est.
168	Svalbard	0.00	2001

There was my research for this week. It was all quite interesting. Some of it was not quite what I expected and some was. Some information was more predictable than other information. In an earlier blog I gave some links to some organizations that may help change these lists in near future. Another interesting resource I found was this pdf file that has some data about AIDS.

I guess that will be it for now. I will not be posting a blog next week because of Spring Break, but the next Friday I should have another one up for you to read and discover new information!

Jenna