The extent of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and the devastating disease that it causes, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), remains a critical public health problem for the United States and for the planet. While new and complicated drug regimens have decreased the mortality rate due to this disease, infection rates in the United States have not declined further, and in fact are increasing in certain minority populations. In the US, over 750,000 people are infected with HIV and it is estimated that perhaps as many as another 250,000 may be infected, but remain unaware of their infection. Globally, at the end of the year 2000, over 36 million people are infected worldwide. Most troubling, over 10% of the newly infected people are children under the age of 15.
