Open AccessEpidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the United States
Author(s) -
Susan Hariri,
Matthew T. McKenna
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
clinical microbiology reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.177
H-Index - 282
eISSN - 1070-6305
pISSN - 0893-8512
DOI - 10.1128/cmr.00006-07
Subject(s) - epidemiology , transmission (telecommunications) , medicine , public health , population , disease , incidence (geometry) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , immunology , virology , environmental health , demography , pathology , physics , electrical engineering , optics , sociology , engineering
SUMMARY The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic emerged in the early 1980s with HIV infection as a highly lethal disease among men who have sex with men and among frequent recipients of blood product transfusions. Advances in the treatment of HIV infection have resulted in a fundamental shift in its epidemiology, to a potentially chronic and manageable condition. However, challenges in the prevention of this infection remain. In particular, increasing evidence suggests that transmission of drug-resistant virus is becoming more common and that the epidemic is having a profound impact on morbidity and mortality in ethnic and racial minority subgroups in the United States. New population-based data collection systems designed to describe trends in behaviors associated with HIV transmission and better methods for measuring the true incidence of transmission will better elucidate the characteristics of HIV infection in the United States and inform future public health policies.