Epidemiology of HIV infections: international and U.S. perspectives.

By early 1998 42 million people had become infected with HIV worldwide. Approximately 11.7 million people including 9 million adults and 2.7 million children have died from AIDS-related diseases although only 1.6 million cases of AIDS have been officially reported to WHO because of under-reporting reporting delays and poor recognition of clinical cases. Thus an estimated 30.6 million people including 29.5 million adults and 1.1 million children are currently living with HIV infection worldwide. In 1997 16000 infections occurred each day resulting in 5.8 million new HIV infections and 2.3 million people died from HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses including an estimated 460000 children. Approximately 8 million children have been orphaned due to the premature death of HIV-infected parents and this number will continue to increase in the years to come. (authors)