Health and Communicable Disease— Protecting Life in the Global Commons 421sen tial transnational issue. Originally transmitted from animals to humans in Central
Africa, it then spread from person to person through the exchange of bodily fluids.
Then those infected carried it to others around the globe as they travelled among states,
all long before any symptoms appeared. HIV/AIDS rapidly became a major health and
humanitarian prob lem, with an estimated 36.9 million people living with the disease
at the end of 2014 (see Figure 11.1). The number of AIDS- related deaths has dropped
from about 2 million annually in 2005 to 1.2 million in 2014. Africa still is the epi-
center, with about 70 percent of the cases. HIV/AIDS is also an economic issue, dis-
proportionately affecting those in their primary productive years, between the ages of
15 and 45. As teachers, workers, military personnel, and civil servants are infected,
economic development is stymied and the viability of the military as an institution is
threatened. And HIV/AIDS is a social issue, as families are torn apart and children
are orphaned and left to fend for themselves. Th ese children are often then forced to
turn to prostitution or crime to survive. As the International Crisis Group explains, “it
destroys the very fibre of what constitutes a nation: individuals, families and commu-
nities; economic and po liti cal institutions; military and police forces. It is likely then to
F GI ure 11.1 ADuLt HIV PreVALenCe rAte, 2014
Note: Data are estimates. Prevalence rates include adults ages 15–49.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, based on UNAIDS, How AIDS Changed Every thing; 2015.N/A less than 1% 1-5% 5-10% greater than 10%