Through mid-1996, an estimated 27.9 million people worldwide had been infected with HIV, of whom approximately 7.7 million have developed AIDS.1

Currently, an estimated 21 million adults and 800,000 children worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. 1, 2

Approximately 42 percent of the 21 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women; this proportion is growing. 2

Over 3.1 million new HIV infections are expected to occur worldwide during 1996, that is, an estimated 8,500 infections each day -- 7,500 adults and 1,000 children. 2

By the year 2000, an estimated 40 million people worldwide will be HIV-infected, 90 percent of them in developing countries. 2

By mid-1996, cumulative HIV/AIDS-associated deaths worldwide numbered approximately 4.5 million among adults and 1.3 million among children. 2

In 1995 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 1.3 million people worldwide, including an estimated 300,000 children younger than 5 years of age. 2

By the year 2000, an estimated 5 to 10 million children under 10 years of age will be orphaned worldwide because of the premature death of HIV-infected parents. 3

Worldwide, more than 70 percent of all adult HIV infections result from heterosexual intercourse.2

Mother to child (vertical) transmission has accounted for more than 90 percent of all HIV infections in infants and children. 2

In the United States

In the United States, 548,102 cases of people with AIDS had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of June 30, 1996. 4

Through June 1996, more than 62 percent of people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States - 343,000 individuals -- have died. AIDS is now the leading cause of death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44. 4, 5

From 1985 to 1995, the proportion of reported U.S. AIDS cases occurring among women increased from 7 percent to 19 percent. As of June 30, 1996, the CDC had received reports of 78,654 cases of AIDS among female adults and adolescents in the United States. 4

A recent study estimated that 630,000 to 897,000 adults and adolescents in the United States were living with HIV infection as of January 1993, including 107,000 to 150,000 women. 6

Minorities are disproportionately affected by AIDS in the United States. In 1995, blacks and Hispanics represented the majority of cases among men (54 percent) and among women (76 percent). 4

In 1995, the rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 population in the United States was 92.6 among blacks, 46.2 among Hispanics, 15.4 among whites, 12.3 among American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and 6.2 among Asians/Pacific Islanders. 4

Among men diagnosed with AIDS in the United States in 1995, male-to-male sexual contact accounted for the largest proportion of cases (51 percent), followed by injection drug use (24 percent). 4

Among women diagnosed with AIDS in the United States in 1995, most acquired HIV infection through injection drug use (38 percent) or sexual contact with a man with or at risk of HIV infection (38 percent). 4

Heterosexual transmission accounts for an increasing proportion of AIDS cases in the United States. From 1985 to 1995, the proportion of U.S. AIDS cases attributed to heterosexual transmission grew from 2.5 percent to 16.7 percent. 7

In the United States, approximately 14,920 HIV-infected infants were born between 1978 and 1993. Of these, an estimated 12,240 children were living at the beginning of 1994. 8

Through June 30 1996, 7,296 U.S. cases of AIDS in children younger than 13, and 2,574 cases in individuals aged 13 through 19 had been reported to the CDC. 4

References

1. World Health Organization: Weekly Epidemiological Record. July 5, 1996.

2. Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization: HIV/AIDS Situation in Mid-1996. July 1, 1996.

3. Quinn, T: Global Burden of the HIV Pandemic. Lancet 1996;348:99-106.

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. Year-end edition, Vol. 7, no 2, 1995; Mid-year edition, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1996.

5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Update: mortality attributable to HIV infection among persons aged 25-44 years -- United States, 1994. MMWR 45(6):121-125.

6. Rosenberg, PS: Scope of the AIDS Epidemic in the United States. Science 1996; 270:1372-1375.

7. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention: Statistics and Data Management Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. Unpublished data, July 1996.

8. Davis, SF et al: Prevalence and incidence of vertically acquired HIV infection the United States. JAMA 1995;274:952-955.

Source:
Office of Communications
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892

U.S. Public Health Service
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services