Today HIV/AIDS has not only claimed the lives of 20 million people worldwide since it was first identified in 1981, but it has evolved into an epidemic that is threatening the future of the African continent. According to a UNAIDS report, globally the number of people living with HIV has risen from 35 million in 2001 to close to 40 million today. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, a region, which makes up only 10% of the world’s population, a staggering 25 million people are living with HIV. UNAIDS also reports that in 2005, 64% of all new HIV infections globally (over 3 million cases) were all in Sub-Saharan Africa.

People who live in poor and underdeveloped countries such as Ethiopia, which have been unable to adequately educate their citizens about the disease and take necessary preventative measures, are the ones that suffer the most. In the United States, a country with a population size nearly four times that of Ethiopia, the number of people living with HIV is under a million (950,000) compared to the estimated 1.5 million people living with HIV in Ethiopia. About 96, 000 of the cases are children under the age of 15.

Even though currently there is no data that tell us the exact number of people living with AIDS in Oromia, by virtue of the fact that Oromos constitute about 40 percent of the Ethiopian population, its safe to say that the majority of the people living with AIDS in Ethiopia are Oromos. Thus, we can imagine the magnitude of the impact that HIV/AIDS is having on the lives of our people. As noted above, there have not been adequate studies done on HIV/AIDS in Oromia to provide us with data, which could be used to accurately determine the exact number of infected Oromos. This is due to the under representation of Oromos globally. Nonetheless, the information gathered from various sources on the general trends of HIV/AIDS spread in Oromia is enough to alarm us about the danger that this disease poses to the physical, social and economic well beings of our people.