A Historical Overview of the Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the United States

One of the worst public health crises facing humanity, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has had and continues to have profound social, political, economic, and health impact on individuals, their communities, our nation, and the world. In the United States, over the past 35 years, we have significantly changed our public health and epidemiologic surveillance systems of infectious diseases, implemented new policies for keeping our blood supply safe, developed new procedures and guidelines for HIV testing and treatment, intervened in people’s most private behaviors, attempted to mitigate the devastating and relentless stigma, developed and tested numerous vaccines—although at present, none have proven effective—developed safe and effective antiretroviral drug therapies that treat HIV disease and are now being used to prevent HIV infection, and recently—in 2010 and updated in 2015—established a National HIV/AIDS Strategy. We have made significant and innovative gains in terms of new knowledge generated, cases averted and length and quality of life for those afflicted; yet HIV/AIDS remains as the most serious, national public health crisis in the United States with incidence remaining at approximately 50,000 people newly infected each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2013a).