Hiv in Usa

HIV/AIDS in the United States

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has had a substantial impact on the health and economy of many nations. This paper however, talks about who’s infected, how many people are living with the disease HIV/AIDS, how the disease is transmitted, global impact, and how we can prevent this dreadful disease from happening.

In the beginning, the male homosexual community was the most affected group due to infection as a result of anal sex. Bisexuality and drug abuse slowly transmitted the disease to the heterosexual community, and as we entered the nineties, a shift of prevalence to the heterosexual community was noticed. Most alarming however, is the fact that one of the fastest growing populations to be infected with HIV/AIDS is the young adult population, inclusive of high school and college students.

AIDS was first identified in the USA in 1981. The epidemic has now spread to every part of the USA and to all sectors of society. Since the first AIDS cases were reported in the United States in June 1981, the number of cases and deaths among persons with AIDS increased rapidly during the 1980s followed by substantial declines in new cases and deaths in the late 1990s. (C. 1) The greatest impact of the epidemic is among men who have sex with men (MSM) and among racial/ethnic minorities, with increases in the number of cases among women and of cases attributed to heterosexual transmission.

The number of persons living with AIDS has increased as deaths have declined. Controlling the epidemic requires sustained prevention programs in all of these affected communities, particularly programs targeting MSM, women, and injection drug users. At the end of 2004, the CDC estimates that 415,193 people were living with AIDS in the USA.1Of these, 35% were white, 43% were black, 20% were Hispanic, and 1% was of other race/ethnicity. Of the adults and adolescents2 with AIDS, 77% were men. Of these men, 58% were men who had sex with men (MSM), 21% were injection drug users (IDU), 11% were exposed through heterosexual contact, 8% were both MSM and IDU. Of the 93,566 adult and adolescent women with AIDS, 64% were exposed through heterosexual contact, 34% were exposed through injection drug use. An estimated 3,927 children were living with AIDS at the end of 2004, of which 97% probably acquired the infection from their mothers. (B.1)

Male-to-male sex has been the most common mode of exposure among persons reported with AIDS (46%), followed by injection drug use (25%) and heterosexual contact (11%). The incidence of AIDS increased rapidly in all three of these risk categories through the mid-1990s; however, since 1996, declines in new AIDS cases have been higher among MSM and injection drug users than among persons exposed through heterosexual contact (C.2)

Center for disease control (CDC) analyzed reported AIDS cases from 1981 through 2000 from the 50 states, District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Proportions by sex, age, race/ethnicity, region, and vital status (living or deceased) were computed over four time periods corresponding