Despite these grim statistics, there have been gains.
States that hadn’t adopted Medicaid expansion as of 2022 accounted for 43% of all new infections.
Florida, Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina represent the lions share of these infections.
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Moreover, nearly half of all Americans without health insurance live in the South.
By Age
In the United States, the primarymode of HIV transmissionis sex.
Youth also accounts for the highest rate of undiagnosed infections.
The picture is little improved among adults 25 to 34, where more than a quarter remain undiagnosed.
By contrast, women who exclusively have sex with women are considered to be at low risk of infection.
Among MSM living with HIV, White men accounted for 34%.
By Race
HIV and race are integrally linked, with people of color disproportionately affected.
Poverty, again, is a driving factor.
Race also plays an integral role in the risk of HIV among MSM.
The risk is especially high among Black women due tosocioeconomic and gender inequalities.
The decline for Black women and teenage girls was about 32%.
None of this should suggest that heterosexual men have less to worry about.
When theimmune defenses have been fully compromised, these infections can become life-threatening.
It is these so-calledopportunistic infectionsthat are among the main causes of death in people living with HIV.
In the early days of the AIDS pandemic, most people died within two years of their diagnosis.
In 2022, a total of 19,310 people living with HIV died in the United States.
Of these, more than a fifth were believed to have been because of an HIV-related complication.
Most occurred in the South and Northeast, accounting to the CDC.
Today, the annual number of HIV-related deaths is around 630,000a reduction of roughly 69%.
Stagnating economic contributions from developed countries are only part of the reason why.
The vast majority of people living with HIV are in low- to medium-income countries.
These are described in the latest surveillance report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Government inaction and discrimination against gay men and other high-risk groups also help fuel the infection rates.
Women are often disproportionately affected.
That number is expected to increase as the 90-90-90 targets are met.
Globally, there are an estimated 30.7 million people on antiretroviral therapyroughly 77% of the worlds HIV population.
When used appropriately, the preventive strategy can reduce the risk of MTCT by 98% or more.
Without treatment, the risk of transmission runs anywhere from 15% to 45%.
HIV remains a leading cause of death worldwide andtheleading cause of death globally of women of reproductive age.
Not every country is following this trend.
Frequently Asked Questions
In 2019, there were 1.2 million people with HIV in the US.
In 2019, the incidence rate of HIV in the US was 12.6 per 100,000 people.
The number of HIV infections that were estimated to have appeared that year came to 34,800.
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