HIV/AIDS Epidemic Continues
In the two decades since the first reports of the disease,
AIDS has become a global epidemic. Worldwide, by the end of
2002, an estimated 42 million people — 38.6 million adults
and 3.2 million children younger than 15 years — are
now living with HIV/AIDS. In the United States, an estimated
800,000 to
900,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS. Even with the advances
in drug therapies, there is still much work that needs to be
done.
- According to the World Health Organization, as
of the end of 2002, there are more than 42 million people
worldwide living
with HIV.
- Each day worldwide, approximately 14,000 individuals are infected.
- In the United States, 816,149 cases of AIDS had been reported
to the CDC through December 2001
- AIDS cases in the United States broken down by ethnicity:
- 43 percent are white
- 38 percent are black
- 18 percent are Hispanic/Latino
- AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death in
the United States among people aged 25 to 44, and is the
leading
cause of death for black men in this age group.
- At least half of all new HIV infections are in people under
age 25.
- Women are the fastest growing population becoming infected
with HIV. Of new infections among women in the United
States, CDC estimates that approximately 75 percent of women were
infected through heterosexual sex and 25 percent through injection drug
use.
- In 2000, eleven percent of all AIDS cases diagnosed were
in people 50 years and over, and because doctors do
not expect AIDS in this population, the disease often goes undiagnosed. Learn
more about older
adults and HIV/AIDS.
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