In 2007 there were 2.7 million new HIV infections worldwide and 2 million HIV-related deaths (ibid.).
At the end of 2003, an estimated 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 persons in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, with 24%-27% undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "HIV/AIDS Basic Statistics") .
African American men and women in the U.S. are strongly affected and are estimated to have an incidence rate (rate of new infections) that was 7 times greater than the incidence rate among whites (ibid.).
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for 67% of all people living with HIV and for 75% of AIDS deaths in 2007 (UNAIDS, 2008 Report).
Women account for half of all people living with HIV worldwide, and nearly 60% of HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa (ibid.).
Young people aged 15-24 account for an estimated 45% of new HIV infections worldwide (ibid.).
An estimated 370,000 children younger than 15 years became infected with HIV in 2007 (ibid.).
In developing and transitional countries, 9.7 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 2.99 million (31%) are receiving the drugs (ibid.).
In two countries in the Caribbean – the Bahamas and Haiti – more than 2% of the adult population is living with HIV. Higher prevalence rates are found only in sub-Saharan Africa, making the Caribbean the second-most affected region in the world (Avert, Caribbean Statistics Summary).
