As of December 2001, 816,149 cases of AIDS had been reported in the United States, with 506,154 survivors.1 There are approximately 40,000 new HIV infections occurring in the United States every year. While the increase in rate has been leveling off in this country, this has not been the case in the developing world, where HIV infection continues to rise in truly epidemic proportions, far exceeding those witnessed in the United States at any time in the past.2
According to a study by Padian et al., women are up to 20 times more likely to contract HIV from a male sex partner than the converse.6 Until recently, women in general were routinely denied access to new therapies and were excluded from clinical trials.7 This lack of access is attributed to their potential to become pregnant and their role as caretakers to ill partners as well as children and other household members. Newborns constitute another group whose rate is high, but through screening interventions of pregnant women, inroads are being made. Finally, through the screening of donated blood and blood products, the number of persons contracting HIV through this mode decreases every year, and should be down to insignificant numbers in the near future.8
The annual number of AIDS-related deaths has been declining since the late 1990's. However, there has been essentially no decline in AIDS incidence from 1999 through 2001. That is why until an effective vaccine is developed, education toward prevention will continue to be more important than the latest advances in medical intervention.
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The modes of transmission have not changed since first determined in the early 1980's.5 The proportion of persons who acquire HIV through homosexual activity (men having sex with men) still represents the largest risk group. While the incidence of new infection in this category was declining in recent years, it has made a kind of resurgence, mostly due to high-risk behavior in younger homosexuals. Although knowledge of AIDS and its consequences has been well established through educational efforts, high risk behavior among adolescents continues in light of perceptions of immortality that are difficult to overcome.