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HIV infections have fallen 73 percent nationwide since they peaked in the mid-1980s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of new infections reached 20,000 in 1981, reached 130,400 in 1984 before dropping to 34,800 by 2019, the CDC recently reported. The human immunodeficiency virus – the human immunodeficiency virus – attacks cells that the body needs to fight infection. If left untreated, HIV infection can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). In the 40 years since the onset of the AIDS epidemic, 2.2 million people aged 13 or older in the United States have been infected with HIV. Today, about 1.2 million people in the country live with HIV, including more than half (57 percent) whose treatment has prevented the disease from progressing, says the CDC. The federal agency says, however, that about 13 percent do not know they have HIV and should be tested. Although there is no effective cure for HIV, there are treatments — a newly approved daily pill regimen and injections every four weeks — that can keep it under control, as a chronic and manageable condition, and prevent it from progressing to AIDS. HIV is spread through contact with bodily fluids from an HIV-positive person, often during unprotected sex or sharing injecting drug paraphernalia, such as needles. The CDC report attributes most infections (63% in 1981, 66% in 2019) to male-female sexual contact. By contrast, HIV infections among those who inject drugs decreased by 93 percent (from 34,500 in 1988-1990 to 2,500 in 2019).
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