From Mark Cichocki, R.N.,
Your Guide to AIDS / HIV.
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As the HIV epidemic continues, the number of infections and who is becoming infected is ever changing. The following HIV statistics offers you a snapshot of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States as it stands now.

• The number of new HIV infections in the United States each year remains stable at about 40,000 cases per year.

• Approximately 1.2 million people are living with HIV, 400,000 of them are living with an AIDS diagnosis.

• The number of AIDS deaths each year amounts to about 17,000 according to the most current stats from 2005.

• While 1.2 million people are living with HIV, the number of those people not in HIV care has reached greater than 50 percent.

• Of those 1.2 million people living with HIV, about 25 percent of them don't realize they are infected.

• From 1985 to 1999, the proportion of all U.S. AIDS cases which were reported in women increased from 7 percent to 23 percent.

• The cause of HIV infections is changing.
  • Infection by heterosexual contact was 31 percent in 2005, up from 3 percent in 1985.
  • Over the same period the number of infections attributed to men who have sex with men fell from 65 percent in 1985 to 43 percent in 2005.
  • HIV caused by sharing needles was 19 percent in 1985, peaked at 31 percent in 1993, and fell to 21 percent by 2005.

_{Source - Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; HIV/AIDS Policy Fact Sheet; 7 Jul 2007.}

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