VH1 AIDS: A Pop Culture History VH1 Music Studio Cable in the Classroom STATISTICS

Note to Teachers: The programs viewed in conjunction with these educational materials may include references, consistent with the eras portrayed, to substance abuse, violent acts, and topics of a sexual and/or political nature. Because this may be considered inappropriate for classroom use in some communities, you are encouraged to review the programs before presenting them to your students, and if necessary, choose those sections that enhance your lesson and are acceptable for use in your classroom.

Statistics

Sometimes statistics can seem like, well … statistics. They can be a bunch of numbers that seem completely disconnected to anything in your world. The word “numbers” starts with “numb” for a reason, right? Maybe a list of HIV/AIDS statistics makes you numb. Check these out and reflect on them, and maybe, just maybe they won’t seem so disconnected and numbing.

• As of the end of 2003, an estimated 40 million people worldwide - 37 million adults and 2.5 million children younger than 15 years - were living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately two-thirds of these people (26.6 million) live in Sub-Saharan Africa; another 18 percent (7.4 million) live in Asia and the Pacific. (1)
  
  Do you think that statistics dealing with Africa and Asia do not interest people in the U.S.? What would you say to others in order to convince them that HIV/AIDS statistics from other parts of the world should concern them?



• An estimated 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.


What might some of the long-term effects be in having so many orphans?


• Worldwide, approximately 11 of every 1000 adults aged 15 to 49 are HIV-infected. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 8 percent of all adults in this age group are HIV-infected. (1)



• An estimated 5 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 2003; that is, about 14,000 infections each day. (1)
  
  Those new infections were NOT limited to Africa and Asia; some were in the U.S. What do you think is required to decrease the infection rates in the U.S.?
  


• In 2003, approximately 2,000 children under the age of 15 years, and 6,000 young people aged 15 to 24 years became infected with HIV every day. (1)
  
  Do you think that your peers are concerned about HIV? If they are not, do you think it is because they do not engage in risky behaviors or because they do not really care about it?



• In 2003 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 3 million people worldwide, including an estimated 500,000 children younger than 15 years. (1)



• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 850,000 to 950,000 U.S. residents are living with HIV infection, one-quarter of whom are unaware of their infection. (2)
  
  What do you think the dangers are of people not knowing that they are HIV positive?



• Approximately 40,000 new HIV infections occur each year in the United States, about 70 percent among men and 30 percent among women. Of these newly infected people, half are younger than 25 years of age. (3,4)
  
  Are you surprised by the fact that half of new infections are people under 25? Why do you think that half of new infections fall in that age category?



• Total number of AIDS orphans since the beginning of the epidemic until the end of 2001 - 14 million (Defined as children 0-14, as of end 2001, who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.)

These materials are provided through a partnership with Cable Positive. This curriculum was created in collaboration with Cable Positive, Cable in the Classroom and Topics Education.