1. Health

The US HIV Epidemic

A Snapshot of the Current State of the US HIV/AIDS Epidemic

From , former About.com Guide

Updated December 14, 2008

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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.

  • The estimated number of new adult or adolescent AIDS cases diagnosed in the United States decreased 18 percent from 1996 to 1997 (from 60,618 cases to 49,704 cases). From 1997 to 1998, the number of new AIDS cases decreased 12 percent to 43,681 cases.

  • 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.

  • There were less than 40 cases of HIV/AIDS in children under the age of 13 in 2006.

  • 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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