AIDS – etiology, epidemiology.
AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging your immune system, HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight the organisms that cause disease. HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). It can also be spread by contact with infected blood or from mother to child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding. Without medication, it may take years before HIV weakens your immune system to the point that you have AIDS.
- Epidemiology:
The most recent data, according to UNAIDS, suggests that approximately 33.4 million people worldwide are living with HIV and that there were about 2.7 million new infections and 2 million AIDS-related deaths in 2008.
According to the CDC, approximately 1,178,350 people in the united States were living with HIV in 2007. About 50,000 people are infected each year in the U.S.
The epidemic is worst in Sub-Saharan Africa and is spreading fastest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Blacks/African Americans account for a higher proportion of new HIV diagnoses and people living with HIV, compared to other races/ethnicities. In 2017, blacks/African Americans accounted for 13% of the US population but 43% (16,694) of the 38,739 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and dependent areas.