HIV/AIDS; Facts to Know

The CDC reports that 529,133 people have died from AIDS between the start of the epidemic in 1985 and 2004. In 2004, 45,514 people were living with AIDS in the U.S.

At the end of 2003, an estimated 1,309,000 to 1,185,000 people in the U.S. were infected with HIV, with about one-fourth unaware of their infection. Through 2004, 944,305 cases of AIDS had been reported to the CDC since the epidemic began, 178,463 in women.

Worldwide, more than 80 percent of HIV cases are the result of heterosexual intercourse. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, as of December 2005, 40.3 million people were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 38 million were adults, 17.5 million were women, and 2.3 million were children under 15.

During 2005, AIDS caused the deaths of an estimated 3.1 million people worldwide, including 2.6 million adults and 570,000 children under 15.

The overwhelming majority of people with HIV-approximately 95 percent of the global total-now live in the developing world.

HIV infection can be passed from a mother to her baby before or during birth and through breastfeeding. Among HIV-infected pregnant women who have not received any preventive treatment, mother-to-infant HIV transmission rates range from 15 to 25 percent in developed countries to 25 to 45 percent in developing countries, where an estimated 1,600 HIV-infected babies are born each day. However, when women and their infants receive the antiretroviral drug AZT and other drugs during pregnancy and delivery the risk of transmission drops to below two percent.

Many people report no symptoms when they are first infected. However, some people have initial symptoms, called acute retroviral syndrome or primary HIV infection. The symptoms are similar to those of mononucleosis-such as fever, fatigue, joint ache, headache and sore throat-and last for one to three weeks. When primary HIV infection is recognized, some experts believe that starting treatment at this point may help control progression of infection down the road.

One of the benefits of improved drug treatment for HIV infection is that people are living longer before developing AIDS. In fact, the drugs have allowed many people to stop taking preventive therapy for AIDS-defining opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and mycobacterium avium complex.

As of 2006, there were at least 26 FDA-approved drugs used to treat HIV infection. The drugs, which fall into four classes, are used in combination with each other to help prevent resistance.

The riskiest behavior when it comes to HIV transmission is sharing needles to inject drugs with someone who is HIV infected. The next riskiest behavior is anal sex, followed by vaginal sex. However, you shouldn't play the odds, because the virus can easily be transmitted in an isolated sexual incident. You should never have unprotected anal or vaginal sexual intercourse with anyone whose HIV status you are unsure of. And keep in mind that HIV is two to four times more transmissible to women as to men.