Worldwide: UNAIDS estimates that 47.3 million people have been infected with HIV since the start of the global epidemic (42.9 million adults and 4.4 million children under 15). An estimated 13.9 million people have died with AIDS since the epidemic began (10.7 million adults and 3.2 million children under 15).

As of December 1998, there were an estimated 33.4 million people living with HIV infection or AIDS (32.2 million adults and 1.2 million children under 15). An estimated 5.8 million new HIV infections occurred in 1998. This represents almost 16,000 new cases per day. During 1998, HIV-associated illnesses caused the deaths of an estimated 2.5 million people, including 900,000 women and 510,000 children under 15.

In the United States: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are between 650,000 and 900,000 people living with HIV. Through December 1998, a total of 688,200 cases of AIDS had been reported to the CDC; of this number, 410,800 persons (representing 60% of cases) have died.

How safe is the U.S. blood supply? The U.S. blood supply is among the safest in the world. Nearly all people infected with HIV through blood transfusions received those transfusions before 1985, the year it became possible to test donated blood for HIV.

The Public Health Service has recommended a multifaceted approach to blood safety in the United States that includes stringent donor selection practices and the use of screening tests. Blood donations in the United States have been screened for antibody to HIV-1 since March 1985 and HIV-2 since June 1992. Blood and blood products that test positive for HIV are safely discarded and are not used for transfusion

An estimated one in 450,000 to one in 660,000 donations per year are infectious for HIV but are not detected by current antibody screening tests. In August of 1995 the FDA recommended that all donated blood and plasma also be screened for HIV-1 p24 antigen. Donor screening for p24 antigen is expected to reduce the number of otherwise undetected infectious donations by approximately 25 percent per year. The improvement of processing methods for blood products has also reduced the number of infections resulting in the use of these products. Currently the risk of infection with HIV in the United States through receiving a blood transfusion or through the use of blood products is extremely rare and has become progressively more infrequent, even in areas with high HIV prevalence rates.