How Many People Have AIDS?
By December 1996, over 500,000 people in the United States had been diagnosed with AIDS. More than 78,000 were women. Over 7,200 were children under age 13. It is the third leading cause of death for adults ages 25-44 and the fourth leading cause of death for youths ages 15-24. To date, over 2,500 American teens and more than 95,000 people in their 20s have developed AIDS. A high proportion of these young adults became infected with the virus while teenagers. In this country alone, over 340,000 adults and children have already died from the disease. How many people are infected with HIV? Experts cannot give an exact number. It is estimated that over 1 million people in the United States are living with the virus. As of mid-1994, the World Health Organization believes 17 million adults and children are infected with HIV worldwide. Can HIV or AIDS be cured? No. There is no cure for AIDS and no vaccine to prevent HIV infection. We do have drugs to treat many of the infections and illnesse
