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HIV/AIDS is the disease most important to Africans, West Asians and Latin Americans, while people elsewhere fear cancer, according to research companies Gallup International and South Africa-based Markinor.
Of more than 50,000 people interviewed in over 60 countries for their annual 'Voice of the People' survey, 42 percent mentioned cancer as the most threatening illness, 27 percent rated HIV/AIDS as the top disease and 15 percent named heart attacks and strokes.
The study also noted that cancer - considered the most feared disease overall - was mentioned by only one percent of interviewees in Africa.
A local newspaper, The Cape Times, quoted Markinor as saying: "Africa was also the region where most people mentioned the [United Nations] Millennium Goal of combating HIV/AIDS ... In Africa, women and young people are generally even more concerned than other groups."
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions