UNAIDS estimated that in 2007, there were 2.5 million (1.8 – 4.1) new HIV infections, and 2.1 million (1.9 – 2.4) AIDS deaths worldwide. At the end of 2007, there were an estimated 33.2 million (30.6 – 36.1) people living with HIV (see http://data.unaids.org/pub/EPISlides/2007/2007_epiupdate_en.pdf). 

Southern Africa is the region where 35% of the approximately 33 million HIV-infected people in the world live - in an area estimated to represent only 2% of the global population. Nearly

one third of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths occur in this region which has the highest average HIV prevalence in the world (exceeding 15% in eight countries).

With the rapid scale-up of antiretroviral treatment (ART) delivery in Southern Africa, there is an urgent need to answer key questions about service design and delivery, as well as the effectiveness of ART in individual patients.

The IeDEA Southern Africa (IeDEA-SA) collaboration is part of the International Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) (see www.iedea-hiv.org ), a worldwide initiative aiming to collect data and to establish an international research consortium to address unique and evolving research questions in HIV/AIDS. IeDEA is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (see www3.niaid.nih.gov ).
The coordination and data centers of IeDEA-SA are located in Bern, Switzerland and Cape Town, South Africa and complement each other technically and scientifically. By improving the capacity of participating centres to collect relevant data and the establishment of a regional research network, the project has the potential to make important strategic contributions to this field.

The overarching aims of IeDEA-SA are to conduct clinical, epidemiological and health services research in order to inform HIV/AIDS and TB service delivery in the region, to increase the capacity for delivering ART, and, ultimately,  to improve the prognosis of people living with HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa. The scientific agenda responds to the operational and clinical research priorities identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and opinion leaders in the field and focuses on questions that cannot be answered by one site.

The current database (April 2008) includes data on more than 44174 adults and 7593 children in four Southern African countries (Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe).