HIV/AIDS facts

• Approximately 1.1 million persons are living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and more than 56,000 new infections occur every single year.
• Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
• HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk
• The number of AIDS cases among women in the U. S. doubles every one to two years.
• The number of U. S. teenagers infected with HIV doubles every 14 months-worldwide, half of all new infections occur in persons between the ages of 15 to 19 years old.
• Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
• African American and Hispanic women together account for more than 77% of AIDS cases reported among women, yet represent less than one-fourth of the total female population in the U.S.
• Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is currently no known cure or vaccine.
• AIDS is the leading cause of death for all African Americans between the ages of 25 to 44.
• More than half of those reported cases are in the Metro New Orleans area.
• In Louisiana, there have been more than 18,899 individuals infected with HIV. Of those, 11,747 are still living.
• Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries.
• AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.