Almost five million people were infected by the HIV globally this year, the highest jump since 1981, according to a United Nations report released in New Delhi, India today.
Young African Americans led the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States, according to the report.
“New cases rose 43 thousand in the United States to top one million as prevention efforts lagged,”according to the report.
The UN report said, “African Americans accounted for 48 percent of new HIV cases in the United States in 2003. African American women are more than a dozens times as likely to be infected with HIV than their white counterparts."
The report continued, “AIDS has become one of the top three causes of death for African American men aged 25-54 and for African American women aged 25-34.”
“In the United States, unprotected sex between men remains the dominant mode of transmission, accounting for 63 percent of the newly-diagnosed HIV infections,” the report said.
The report also said that treatment efforts had been successful in prolonging lives.
A quarter of people living with HIV in the United States were unaware they are infected. “Ignorance is very likely adding impetus to the epidemic,” according to the report.
This report was released ahead of World AIDS day on December 1.
