More than twenty five years after the first clinical evidence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome was reported, AIDS has become one of the most devastating diseases humankind has ever faced. Since the epidemic began, some 58 million people have been infected with the virus. HIV/AIDS has become the sixth-largest cause of death worldwide.
At the end of 2007, an estimated 33 million people globally were living with HIV. In that year alone, there were an estimated 2 million AIDS deaths and 2.7 million new HIV infections. The rate of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, although globally these favourable trends are at least partially offset by increases in new infections in other countries. In many parts of the developing world, the majority of new infections occur in young adults, with young women especially vulnerable. Young people aged 15-24 years account for 45% of all new infections. Many of them do not know they carry the virus. Many millions more are vulnerable to HIV as they know nothing or too little about the virus, or are otherwise unable to protect themselves against it
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