HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic for more than 25 years. Most of today's youth have never known a world without it.

In 2005, 45,000 new AIDS diseases cases were reported. The number of HIV infections is harder to confirm, as only about two-thirds of the States report HIV infections. Estimates from these data indicate that about 40,000 new HIV infections have occurred annually since the early 1990s, down from the peak of 160,000 new infections per year in the mid-1980s. [*]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one-quarter of the people in the United States who are infected with HIV do not know they are infected. [**]

^* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. AIDS Cases (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#aidscases). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved May 2007.

^** Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. Basic Statistics AIDS Cases by Exposure Category (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm#exposure). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved November 2005