HIV/AIDS WORLDWIDE

• As of the end of 1998, an estimated 33.4 million people worldwide -- 32.2 million adults and 1.2 million children younger than 15 years -- were living with HIV/AIDS.¹

• Worldwide, approximately one in every 100 adults aged 15 to 49 is HIV-infected.¹

• Approximately 43 percent of the 32.2 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women; this proportion is growing.¹

• An estimated 5.8 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 1998; that is, approximately 16,000 infections each day. More than 95 percent of these new infections occurred in developing countries.¹

• In 1998, approximately 7,000 young people aged 10 to 24 became infected with HIV every day -- that is, five every minute.¹

• Through 1998, cumulative HIV/AIDS-associated deaths worldwide numbered approximately 13.9 million -- 10.7 million adults and 3.2 million children.¹

• In 1998 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 2.5 million people worldwide, including an estimated 510,000 children younger than 15 years.¹

• Worldwide, more than 75 percent of all adult HIV infections have resulted from heterosexual intercourse.^1,2

• Mother-to-child (vertical) transmission has accounted for more than 90 percent of all HIV infections worldwide in infants and children.^1,2

HIV/AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES

• In the United States, 688,200 cases of AIDS had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Dec. 31, 1998.³

• Of these, 570,425 (83 percent) were males aged 13 or older, 109,311 (16 percent) were females aged 13 or older, and 8,461 (1 percent) were children under age 13.³

• The estimated number of new AIDS cases diagnosed in 1997 (50,384) was 17 percent lower than the estimated number diagnosed in 1996 (60,669).³

• From 1985 to 1998, the proportion of U.S. AIDS cases in women reported each year increased from 7 percent to 23 percent.³

• Of U.S. AIDS cases reported in 1998, 45 percent were among blacks, 33 percent among whites, 20 percent among Hispanics, and fewer than 1 percent among Asians/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives.³

• The rate of new AIDS cases reported in 1998 in the United States (per 100,000 population) was 66.4 among blacks, 28.1 among Hispanics, 8.2 among whites, 7.4 among American Indians/Alaska Natives, and 3.8 among Asians/Pacific Islanders.³

• A recent study estimated that 650,000 to 900,000 U.S. residents were living with HIV infection.⁴

• As of the end of 1997, an estimated 270,841 people in the United States were living with AIDS, a 12 percent increase from 1996.³

• Women accounted for 19.1 percent of persons living with AIDS in 1997, compared with 13.8 percent in 1992. ³

• Among men reported with AIDS in the United States in 1998, male-to-male sexual contact accounted for the largest proportion of cases (45 percent), followed by injection drug use (21 percent).³

• Among women reported with AIDS in the United States in 1998, most acquired HIV infection through sexual contact with a man with or at risk of HIV infection (38 percent) or through injection drug use (29 percent).³

• Heterosexual transmission accounts for an increasing proportion of AIDS cases in the United States. From 1991 to 1997, the estimated proportion of adult U.S. AIDS cases attributed to heterosexual contact each year grew from 8.5 percent to 22.1 percent.⁵

• Through December 1998, 410,800 deaths among people with AIDS had been reported to the CDC.³ AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44.⁶

• Approximately 31,130 deaths attributable to HIV infection occurred in the United States in 1996. In 1997, the estimated number of HIV-related deaths in the United States was 47 percent lower (16,685).⁶