Research, Education, Treatments, Services

Cumulative AIDS Cases

The cumulative number of AIDS cases reported to CDC is 816,149. Adult and adolescent AIDS cases total 807,075 with 666,026 cases in males and 141,048 cases in females. Through the same time period, 9,074 AIDS cases were reported in children under age 13.

Total deaths of persons reported with AIDS are 467,910, including 462,653 adults and adolescents, and 5,257 children under age 15, and 388 persons whose age at death is unknown.

African-American women accounted for nearly 64 percent of HIV cases reported among women in 2001. Although African-Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for half of the new HIV cases reported in 2001.

HIV AND SENIORS

Everyone talks about HIV and AIDS. We hear about its ravages on young men and women, on children born to HIV positive women, on the homeless and the addicted. What no one talks about is the effect HIV has on people over 50 years of age. It's no wonder that when you talk to our seniors, they feel HIV is not a risk to them.

In fact, about 11% of all new AIDS cases are in people over 50. Statistics also show that new AIDS cases rose faster in the over 50 population than in people under 40. The following information sheds some light on the older HIV population and what can be done to decrease risk and improve their quality of life.

The first myth is that seniors don't have sex and therefore aren't at risk for HIV. In fact a 1994 study out of the University of Chicago proved that sexual desire does not wane after the age of 50. In the study, 60% of men and 37% of women 50-59 reported having sex a few times per month. Unfortunately, knowledge of safe sex practices is much less than that of persons in their late teens and early twenties.

HIV DIET AND NUTRITION

Persons with inadequate nutrition who are HIV infected have an increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections and a more rapid disease progression. Even when nutritional intake is adequate, an HIV-positive person may lose weight long before he or she develops AIDS. This happens because, throughout the progression of HIV infection, the patient's nutritional status is challenged by the manifestations of symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, malabsorption, diarrhea, oral/esophageal problems, and infections that impede fat storage. People with HIV may also develop lactose intolerance. After HIV infection has progressed to AIDS, malabsorption of nutrients may become severe. Weight loss can cause a vicious cycle of fatigue, muscle-wasting, and loss of appetite. Nutritionists and dieticians work with people with HIV infection to design diets that provide those nutrients that may be lacking. Some practitioners work within mainstream medicine, while others have unique approaches.

HIV AND PRISONS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has struck prisons, jails, and detention centers with particular severity. Penal institutions around the world have grossly disproportionate rates of HIV infection and AIDS. In the U.S. in 1994, for example, there were 5.2 cases of AIDS per 1,000 prisoners, nearly six times the incidence found in the general adult population.
People entering prison tend to have a relatively high incidence of HIV and prisons provide a perfect breeding ground for transmission of the virus. High-risk behaviors, such as injecting-drug use and unprotected sex, including coerced sex, are common. Health care is either substandard or nonexistent.

Rather than providing prisoners with prevention tools -- notably, condoms, for safe sex, and liquid bleach, for sterilizing needles and syringes -- prison administrators frequently bar the entry of these items. Even HIV/AIDS education, which could help prisoners understand their vulnerability to the virus, is rarely found in the world's penal institutions.

HIV AND MYTHS

Insects

HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes, flies, ticks, fleas, bees or wasps. If a bloodsucking insect bites someone with HIV, the virus dies almost instantly in the insect's stomach as it digests the blood. HIV can live only in human cells.

Sharing Dishes or Food

HIV is not transmitted through casual contact, so it is impossible to get it through sharing a glass, fork, etc.

Donating Blood

Sterilized needles are always used in taking blood from donors in the United States.

Swimming Pools & Hot Tubs

The chemical used in swimming pools and hot tubs would instantly kill any HIV, if the hot water hadn't killed it already.

Pets

Humans are the only animals that can harbor HIV. An exception is chimpanzees used in research that have been intentionally infected with HIV. Their blood poses a threat to researchers working with them.

Other Contact

Contact with saliva, tears or sweat cannot transmit HIV. Using the same restroom as an HIV positive person will not cause transmission.