Anna Engomba found out she had HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, in 2006. Due to the stigma surrounding the infection at the time, she did not want to share this life-changing diagnosis with anyone, not even her mother.

"When you see people are talking there, you will think that maybe they are talking about you. You will think that everyone knows that you are HIV positive," the 39-year-old Namibian told DW, "I was just alone."

She told DW that she became pregnant and gave birth in 2009.

"I dropped out of school, and this stopped my education. At that time, it was not even easy to get medication," she said, fighting back tears.

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Engomba is just one of around 40 million people who have HIV, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — almost 26 million of whom live in the WHO's Africa region.

In the 1990s, many people considered a HIV diagnosis a death sentence because of the limited available treatment options.

While the numbers of people with HIV remains high, treatment and preventative medications have made significant gains, especially in Namibia.

Antiretroviral drugs, for instance, which suppress the virus and prevent it from replicating, are successfully used to treat HIV infection.

"Many HIV-positive women who have become pregnant have opted for getting preventative therapy so that the virus is not transmitted to the unborn babies," Alfred Besa, an expert on HIV/AIDS........

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