Topic > Importance of HIV and Public Health - 2043

According to the CDC, nearly 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, but nearly 20% of these people are unaware that they are living with the condition (CDC, 2013c) . When HIV broke out in the United States nearly 30 years ago, the number of new cases in one year was 130,000. Now, each year the new number of cases filed is approximately 50,000 (CDC, 2013c). In places like sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are higher. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) states: “In 2011, approximately 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69% of the global HIV burden” (UNAIDS , 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces this point by stating: “Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected [by HIV], with nearly 1 in 20 adults living with HIV. 69% of all people living with HIV live in this region” (WHO, 2013a). The statistics on infected people living in the United States are alarming, but there are other countries, such as Africa, that have higher rates of HIV due to very limited spread