AIDS STATISTICS

HIV/AIDS Statistics

HIV/AIDS WORLDWIDE

• Through 1996, an estimated 29.4 million people worldwide had been infected with HIV, of whom approximately 8.4 million have developed AIDS. ¹

• Currently, an estimated 21.8 million adults and 830,000 children worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. ¹

• Approximately 42 percent of the 21.8 million adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are women; this proportion is growing. ¹

• An estimated 3.1 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 1996, that is, approximately 8,500 infections each day -- 7,500 in adults and 1,000 in children. ¹

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

• Through 1996, cumulative HIV/AIDS-associated deaths worldwide numbered approximately 5 million among adults and 1.4 million among children. ¹

• In 1996 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 1.5 million people worldwide, including an estimated 350,000 children. ¹

• By the year 2000, an estimated 5 to 10 million children under 10 years of age will be orphaned worldwide because of the premature deaths of HIV-infected parents. ²

• Worldwide, more than 75 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 worldwide in infants and children. ²

HIV/AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES

• In the United States, 581,429 cases of AIDS had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of Dec. 30, 1996. ⁴

• Of these, 488,300 (84 percent) were males aged 13 or older, 85,500 (15 percent) were females aged 13 or older, and 7,629 (1 percent) were children under age 13. ⁴

• From 1985 to 1996, the proportion of reported U.S. AIDS cases occurring among women increased from 7 percent to 20 percent. ⁴

• Among U.S. residents with AIDS reported in 1996, blacks accounted for a larger proportion of AIDS cases (41 percent) than whites (38 percent) for the first time. Hispanics accounted for 19 percent of U.S. AIDS cases reported in 1996; Asians/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaskan Natives, fewer than 1 percent. ^3,4

• A recent study estimated that 650,000 to 900,000 U.S. residents were living with HIV infection in 1992. ⁶

• As of mid-1996, an estimated 223,000 people in the United States were living with AIDS. ³

• During 1996, the rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 population in the United States was 89.7 among blacks, 41.3 among Hispanics, 13.5 among whites, 10.7 among American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and 5.9 among Asians/Pacific Islanders. ⁴

• Among men diagnosed with AIDS in the United States in 1996, male-to-male sexual contact accounted for the largest proportion of cases (50 percent), followed by injection drug use (23 percent). ⁴

• Among women diagnosed with AIDS in the United States in 1996, most acquired HIV infection through sexual contact with a man with or at risk of HIV infection (40 percent) or through injection drug use (34 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 15.1 percent. ⁵

• Through December 1996, 362,004 deaths among people with AIDS had been reported to the CDC. AIDS is now the leading cause of death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44. ⁴

• Approximately 50,000 deaths among people with AIDS occurred in the United States in 1995. During January-June 1996, the estimated number of AIDS deaths in the United States (22,000) was 13 percent less than that estimated during January-June 1995 (24,900). ³

REFERENCES

1. World Health Organization. Weekly Epidemiological Record 1997;72:17-24.

2. Quinn, T. Global burden of the HIV pandemic. Lancet 1996;348:99-106.

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Update: Trends in AIDS incidence, deaths, and prevalence -- United States, 1996. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1997;46(8):165-192.

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 1996;8(no.2):1-40.

5. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention: Surveillance Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV Infection, STD, and TB Prevention. Unpublished data, March 1997.