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April 2009

• More than one million people are living with HIV in the U.S. (an estimated 1,106,400 adults and adolescents), and approximately one in five of those (21 percent) are unaware of their infections.
• Despite increases in the total number of people living with HIV in the U.S. in recent years, the annual number of new infections has remained relatively stable.
• However, HIV infections continue at far too high a level, with an estimated 56,300 Americans becoming newly infected with HIV each year. On average, that’s one new infection every 9 ½ minutes.
• More than 14,000 people with AIDS still die each year in the U.S.
• Men account for roughly three-quarters of individuals living with and newly infected with HIV.
• HIV has a severe impact on all regions of the country. Areas hardest hit include Miami; New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La.; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; New York City; San Francisco; and Jackson, Miss.
• By risk group, gay and bisexual men of all races remain the population most severely impacted by HIV:
  • Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year
    (53 percent), as well as nearly half of people living with HIV (48 percent).
  • While new HIV infections have declined among both heterosexuals and injection drug users, infections among MSM have been steadily increasing since the early 1990s.
• Among racial/ethnic groups, African-Americans face the most severe burden of HIV and AIDS in the nation:
  • While blacks represent approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for almost half of people living with HIV in the U.S. (46 percent), as well as nearly half of new infections each year (45 percent).
  • At some point in their life, approximately one in 16 black men will be diagnosed with HIV, as will one in 30 black women.
  • The rate of new HIV infections for black men is about six times as high as that of white men, nearly three times that
    of Hispanic men, and more than twice that of black women. The HIV incidence rate for black women is nearly 15 times as high as that of white women, and nearly four times that of Hispanic women.
• Latinos are also disproportionately impacted:
  • Hispanics represent 15 percent of the population but account for an estimated 18 percent of people living with HIV
    and 17 percent of new infections.
  • The rate of new HIV infections among Hispanic men is more than double that of white men, and the rate among Hispanic women is nearly four times that of white women.
• HIV infections among both blacks and Hispanics overall have been roughly stable since the early 1990s.

For more information, please visit the NCHHSTP Newsroom. For HIV testing sites, please visit National HIV and STD Resources.