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HIV/AIDS

There's not much surprise in the numbers: 33.2 million, 2.5 million, 330,000, and 5,700, et cetera. Not much surprise, which is part of the point here.

It's been estimated that in 2007 there were 33.2 million people worldwide living with HIV. Adults and children newly-infected with HIV numbered 2.5 million, of the AIDS deaths that year, 330,000 were children under the age of 15, with a total estimate of 5,700 people dying of AIDS every single day globally that year. [Sources: UNAIDS – AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2007, U.S. Census Bureau] But despite the ongoing high profile of HIV and AIDS on a worldwide scale, these statistics don’t represent much of a change. Crisis and emergency have become, oddly, the status quo.

33.2 million people—that's about equal to the number of all adults aged 65-84 living in the United States.

2.5 million people—that's the entire population of the United States at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

330,000 kids—that's as many kids as nine times the population of Grandville, MI.

5,700 people daily—that's almost twice as many as the number of people who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Action steps related to local and global HIV and AIDS are as necessary as ever, and they're interconnected with other issues, including education, poverty, intravenous drug use, and antiretroviral treatment services.

Observe With Us:

[December 1] World AIDS Day