Prevention Matters

On World AIDS Day. MMWR offers the following statistics to illustrate the scope of the issue:

• An estimated 16.5 million women worldwide were HIV positive at the end of 2008
• Approximately 4 million people in low- and middle-income countries were getting antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2008
• Worldwide, women and girls account for almost 60% of new infections; in the US, HIV infections disproportionately affect blacks, Hispanics, and men who have sex with men
• In the US, an estimated 1.1 million people were HIV positive in 2006