Global Impact of HIV/AIDS (2001 estimates)

An estimated 36 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. By June 2001, more than 60 million people will have been infected with HIV since the epidemic began. The steep declines in AIDS mortality seen in the USA and other industrialized countries in 1996-1997 have reached a plateau, largely because of a failure to reduce the occurrence of new cases. There have been increases in unsafe sex practices among men who have sex with men, larger percentages of new cases are women (24%), and the impace is disproportionately high among people of color. A positive trend is the continuing decline in perinatal transmission of HIV. HIV INFORMATION NETWORK, Feb 8, 2001.

2000 Estimates

UN AIDS estimates show that 34.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, with 15,000 new infections occurring each day. Most new cases (approximately 90%) are from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Africa has been hardest hit by the epidemic. More than 10% of adults in 13 African countries ar HIV infected. In the U.S., there are currently 800,000 to 900,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS. HIV INFORMATION NETWORK. Sept 14,2000 from the IDSA 2000 38th Annual Meeting of Infectious Disease Society of America, New Orleans, Louisiana. Sept 7-10, 2000.

HIV Can Survive 6 Weeks in Syringes Used by IVDU

HIV can survive more than 6 weeks in syringes used by injection drug users. The percentage of syringes with viable virus varied with the volume of blood remaining in the syringes and the temperature at which the syringes were stored. These experiments underscore the need for needle exchange programes and other HIV prevention interventions that promote the availability of clean syringes. Robert Heimer, PhD; Nadia Abdala, PhD (AIDS Reader.July2000;Vol10.No7;410-417) www.medscape.com

Risk of HIV in Blood Transfusion: Less than 1 in 600,000

The risk of HIV from blood transfusion is no longer estimated to be 1 in 493,000. That estimate was based on a report using data from blood donated from 1991 to 1993. In 1996, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) published guidelines for donor screening that added the P24 antigen test for HIV detection. The P24 test detects HIV in about 6 days before the antibody test becomes positive, or about 2 to 3 weeks after infection occurs. Since there are about 12 million annual blood donations in the United States, the USPHS expects that the P24 antigen test will detect an additional 4 to 6 infections that would not have been identified by other screening tests. This would reduce HIV risk to less than 1 in 600,000.  [1] Schreiber, Kleinman, Busch, et al. The risk of transfusion-transmitted viral infections. N Engl J Med, 1996;334:1685-1690. [2] USPHS guidelines for testing and counseling blood and plasma donors for HIV type 1 antigen. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1996;45(RR-2).
     Patricia Yeargin, MN, MPH; Southeast AIDS Training and Education Center, Atlanta, Ga (Letter:Patient Care/April 15,1999 www.patientcareonline.com)

Nine Countries with 10% or more of the adult population infected with HIV

Botswana (25%), Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. (UNAIDS/WHO)