COUNTRIES MOST AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS Millions of people are infected with HIV, and millions more are likely

potential victims. Life expectancy has already dropped precipitously in some countries. As parents die of AIDS-related causes, their children become orphans and face uncertain futures. The ability to cope with the demands and consequences of HIV and AIDS is limited by the funds available for health care.

On the hopeful side, more and more governments are responding to the crisis by acknowledging that AIDS is a major concern, by establishing high-level coordinating bodies, and by taking measures to prevent the spread of AIDS. The global challenge of HIV/AIDS is to intensify international action to fight the epidemic and to mobilize the resources needed.

More than 36 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, more than two thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. At least 2 million infected adults live in each of five countries: Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. In five African countries -- Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe -- at least one in five adults has HIV or AIDS.

Eight African countries will have lost at least 17 years of life expectancy to the AIDS epidemic by 2000-2005, namely, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Botswana, life expectancy in 1995-2000 is already 23 years less than it would have been if there had been no AIDS-related mortality, and the shortfall will be 34 years by 2000-2005. Outside Africa, AIDS deaths will decrease life expectancy by at least three years in the Bahamas, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti and Myanmar by 2000-2005.

Most of the deaths caused by AIDS occur to people in younger age groups; the loss of these young lives disproportionately affects productivity and economic growth and the social fabric of family and society. About 310,000 persons died in 1999 of AIDS in India. Ethiopia and Nigeria also each had at least a quarter of a million AIDS deaths. AIDS caused more deaths in India than in any other country.

Some 13 million children have been orphaned because their parents died of AIDS . Three countries Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda each have more than 900,000 AIDS orphans. The number of AIDS orphans will continue to grow in countries where the epidemic is still gathering. Four other countries India, Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe all have at least half a million orphans due to the AIDS epidemic.