HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic for more than 25 years. Most of today's youth have never known a world without it.

In 2006, nearly 37,000 AIDS diagnoses were made. The number of HIV infections is harder to confirm, as only about two-thirds of the States report HIV infections. Using new technology, CDC estimates that in 2006 56,300 new HIV infections occured in the United States.[*]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one-quarter of the people in the United States who are infected with HIV do not know they are infected.[**]

Although blacks, or African Americans, made up only 13% of the population in the 33 states, they accounted for almost half of the estimated number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses made during 2006.

Based on data from 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting.

^* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, HIV/AIDS in the United States (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/us.htm). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved September 2008.

^** Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, Basic Statistics (http://cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#hivest).

^*** Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 2006. Vol. 18 (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/us.htm). Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2008. Retrieved September 2008.