HIV Overview
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the body's immune system, multiplying and spreading from cell to cell at incredible speed, damaging and destroying cells. At first, the immune system fights back by producing new cells, but eventually, HIV causes so much damage that the immune system can no longer keep up. When this happens, T-cells drop below 200 and AIDS develops.
Incidence and Prevalence of HIV
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV infection, and an estimated 14,000 new infections occur each day. Of these new infections, more than 90% occur in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia.
In the United States, HIV infection rates remain high in urban minority populations, in men who have sex with men (MSM), and in people who use injection drugs. In November 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV and that about 240,000 of those people do not know they are infected.
