In honor of AIDS Awareness Day, I’m just going to post some facts and figures. One of the things that upsets me most is the current complacency that seems to have become common around HIV/AIDS, so here are some reasons not to be complacent:
In 2008, there were 126,964 women in the United States living with AIDS, with African American women accounting for 64 percent of the total. According to the Center for Disease Control, the rate of AIDS diagnosis for black women was approximately twenty-three times the rate for white women, and four times the rate for Hispanic women. As of 2010, HIV/AIDS was still the primary cause of death for African American women aged 25–34.
While black people represent only 12 percent of the population, they represent 46 percent of people living with HIV and 45 percent of new infections each year. To put this into even greater relief, approximately one in sixteen African American men and one in thirty African American women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes. This rate for African American men is six times higher than for white men; for black women, the HIV incidence rate fifteen times higher than for white women.
Number of deaths in the United States due to causes related to AIDS = approximately 636,000.
An estimated 1,155,792 people in the United States have been diagnosed with AIDS.
Globally, an estimated 34 million people have HIV. More than 35 million people have died from the virus, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.
While it might be easier to live with AIDS than ever before, it’s important never, ever to get complacent. It still kills, and it still kills a lot of people.
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