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The NAMES Project AIDS quilt, representing
people who have died of AIDS, in front of the Washington Monument.
Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) estimates that there were about 1,106,400 persons living
with HIV in the U.S. at the end of 2006 (2008a). Of those
individuals, approximately 1 in 5 (21%) do not know they are
infected. In 2008, CDC adjusted its estimate of new HIV infections
because of new technology developed by the agency. For many
years, the CDC estimated there were roughly 40,000 new HIV
infections each year in the United States. New results shows
there were dramatic declines in the number of new HIV infections
from a peak of about 130,000 in the mid 1980s to a low of
roughly 50,000 in the early 1990s. Results also shows that
new infections increased in the late 1990s, followed by a
leveling off since 2000 at about 55,000 per year. In 2006,
an estimated 56,300 individuals were newly infected with HIV
(CDC, 2008).
There were no dramatic changes in the demographics
of persons reported to be HIV infected (See Figure 2). The
greatest number of new cases is still among men, especially
men who have sex with men (MSM), while the most common route
of infection among women is heterosexual unprotected sex (CDC,
2008a). There has been a sharp decrease in mother to child
transmission from 1,650 in the 1990's to <200 due to routine
screening of pregnant women, use of antiretroviral medication
for treatment and prophylaxis, cesarean section if indicated,
and avoiding breastfeeding (CDC, 2006a; CDC, 2006c).
Figure 2. Routes of Infection for HIV cases in the US in
2006 (CDC, 2008d)
The burden of HIV infection was disproportionate
among populations. Blacks made up 12% of the adult and adolescent
population in the United States in 2006, but accounted for
46.1% of persons estimated to be living with HIV. Similarly,
nearly half (48.1%) of the persons living with HIV were MSM,
and although not precisely known, the percentage of MSM in
the general population is estimated to be much lower. Data
from CDC's National Survey of Family Growth indicate that,
among males aged 15 -- 44 years, 3.7% ever have had anal sex
with another male, and the proportion of men who had a male
sexual partner in the past 12 months was 2.9% (CDC, 2008a).
Continue on to The Progression
of HIV Infection/Change in CDC AIDS Definition
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