A Momentous Milestone -1 Million Patients in Care in Africa

This week, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, on whose board I sit, reached an incredible milestone. We now have one million patients in care on the continent of Africa. That includes tens of thousands in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, two of the countries I visited in August 2023. All of our doctors and medical staff are to be lauded for such an accomplishment!

Despite the fact that sub-Saharan Africa contains only about 11 percent of the Earth’s population, the region is the world’s epicenter of HIV/AIDS. Of the global total of 34 million women and men living with HIV today, the vast majority—an estimated 23.5 million or 69 percent—live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It all started in 2002 with one hundred patients in Uganda and another one hundred in South Africa. “AHF treads where others feared to go but look at us now,” wrote AHF president Michael Weinstein in an email this week. Twenty-two years later, we’ve reached an unthinkable milestone. Here’s a look at our country-by-country patient totals.

Cumulative Figures:	S. Africa	Uganda	Zambia	Rwanda	Ethiopia	Kenya	Eswatini	Nigeria	S. Leone	Lesotho	Zimbabwe	Malawi	Mozambique	TOTAL
Total PLHIV Clients Registered	221,999	152,761	118,777	40,975	59,584	100,758	34,906	27,538	29,499	48,203	61,571	43,914	61,041	1,001,526

I had hoped to visit our West African clinics when I was there, but my calendar never allowed me time to break away. I am humbled to be part of an organization doing so much in so many corners of our world. Learn more at www.aidshealth.org