HIV/AIDS

If you think AIDS is a gay disease,

you need to start thinking straight.

Several years ago, I saw this on a billboard in Dallas near Northpark Mall. I can't remember if it was a Kenneth Cole billboard or if it was posted by an agency. It obviously made an impression upon me.

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day and I wanted to give you some stats. These are from www.until.org:

Vital Statistics

Worldwide

• Over 22 million people have died from AIDS.
  
• Over 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 74 percent of these infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa.
  
• Over 19 million women are living with HIV/AIDS.
  
• By the year 2010, five countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, China, India, and Russia) with 40 percent of the world's population will add 50 to 75 million infected people to the worldwide pool of HIV disease.
  
• There are 14,000 new infections every day (95 percent in developing countries).
  
• The UN estimates that, currently, there are 14 million AIDS orphans and that by 2010 there will be 25 million.
  
• HIV/AIDS is a "disease of young people" with half of the 5 million new infections each year occurring among people ages 15 to 24.

United States

• An estimated one million people are currently living with HIV in the United States, with approximately 40,000 new infections occurring each year.
  
• 70 percent of these new infections occur in men and 30 percent occur in women.
  
• By race, 54 percent of the new infections in the United States occur among African Americans, and 64 percent of the new infections in women occur in African American women.
  
• 75 percent of the new infections in women are heterosexually transmitted.
  Half of all new infections in the United States occur in people 25 years of age or younger.

World AIDS Day - Dec. 1

www.worldaidsdayhouston.org