Get Informed

HIV/AIDS Basics

It’s our responsibility to learn more about HIV and how to prevent it to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and friends. We can all start doing it by:

• Educating ourselves on the basics about HIV/AIDS, including information on how to protect ourselves and others.
• Talking about what we learn with our loved ones and people who are important to us.
• Empowering even more people by sharing the HIV Basics and our new knowledge with our social media followers.

Whether it’s a conversation, text, social media post—we must talk to each other about HIV and how we can prevent it.

Facts about HIV/AIDS in Your Community

• About 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV. Of those people, 1 in 7 don’t know they are infected.
• In 2015, 39,513 people were newly diagnosed with HIV, and 18,303 people were diagnosed with AIDS. Overall, since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, 1,216,917 people have been diagnosed with AIDS.
• In 2015, 22% of all new HIV diagnoses were among youth aged 13-24.

HIV can affect anyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender or age. However, certain groups based on their sexual orientation, gender, race/ethnicity, and age are at higher risk for HIV and merit special consideration because of particular risk factors. Find out more about HIV prevention challenges by group.

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