This year marks 30 years since the first AIDS cases were reported in USA. Although there are some optimistic signs that someday this infection will be possible to cure, like the case of Timothy Ray Brown cure or medicine for AIDS is still far-reaching goal.

HIV / AIDS Statistic

As this is the anniversary year, we want to summarize some balance, to give you some facts, something like HIV / AIDS statistic:
The cumulative total of HIV infections and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic exceeds 60 million and 25 million, respectively,
At end-2005, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there were some 40.3 million adults living with HIV (Fig. 1.2), with some 4.9 million new HIV infections and 3.1 million AIDS deaths occurring in that calendar year.

United States AIDS Statistics

The USA, the country where in 1981, cases of AIDS were first recognized, has the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemic in the industrialized world. Although AIDS incidence trends have become less representative of trends in HIV transmission since the use of HAART became widespread in 1996, AIDS incidence remains a powerful indicator of the burden of disease . Through 2004, a cumulative total of 918 286 cases of AIDS was reported, and in 2004 alone, there were 44 615 reported cases of AIDS in adults and adolescents, 73% in males and 27% in females, for a population-based rate of 15 per 100 000.
The number of reported cases in children in 2004 was 122.

There is now increased emphasis on the reporting of HIV infections, but such reports cannot indicate alone whether acquisition of infection was recent or remote in time. Reported HIV infections are influenced by HIV transmission trends as well as testing uptake, and AIDS trends now reflect testing uptake and access and response to treatment.

The total estimated number of people living with HIV infection in the USA at the end of 2003 was estimated to be between 1 039 000 and 1 185 000. It is estimated that every year, approximately 40 000 new HIV infections occur; a number that has been stable since the early 1990s. A total of 35 states or territories, representing approximately 61% of the US epidemic, have integrated HIV and AIDS reporting systems since at least 2000, whereas AIDS data are available from all states and territories. New reports of HIV/AIDS from these 35 areas declined slightly between 2001 and 2004, whereas the prevalence of HIV/AIDS increased.

Persons reported with AIDS tended to be older, and were more often male injecting drug users, male heterosexuals, and black or Hispanic than persons reported with HIV alone. Among persons with HIV alone, a greater proportion was contributed by young persons and female heterosexuals compared with persons diag-nosed with AIDS. As illustrated by the greater pro-portion of persons with HIV alone whose transmission category was male-to-male sex, it is not possible to be certain whether these proportional differences reflect trends in HIV transmission or uptake of HIV testing, or both. They can suggest, however, which groups are benefi ting least from early diagnosis and treatment, and where HIV transmission may be most intense.

These trends in the USA, with dis-proportionate impact among minority populations, increasing heterosexual transmission, continued, intense transmission among MSM, stable or declining transmission through injection drug use, and greatly reduced transmission to infants, are broadly representative of the recent history of HIV/AIDS in the rest of the industrialized world.

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