trends

Abstracted from UNAIDS AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2003

At the end of 2003, it was estimated that about 790,000 to 1.2 million people were living with AIDS in North America.  The adult prevalence rate for North America is estimated to be between 0.5% and 0.7%. During 2003, new infections amounted for 36,000 to 54,000 cases. AIDS related deaths in 2003 amounted to 12,000 and 18,000 deaths.

In the USA , approximately 40,000 of the new annual infections occur among African-Americans who are a mere 12% of the country's population. HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death among African-American women between the ages of 25-34 in the USA .  Majority of these women contract the virus through their male sexual partners Approximately, one-third of new infections in the U.S. occur through heterosexual contact. Overall, it is estimated that fully one-quarter of the 850,000-950,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the USA are unaware that they are HIV positive.

At the end of 2001, Canada had 55,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS; the country's adult HIV prevalence rate was 0.30%. As in the U.S. about a quarter of newly acquired HIV infections in Canada have been attributed to injecting drug use.

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