What You Need To Know About World AIDS Day

How many people are living with HIV? How many people have died of AIDS related causes? Many years ago, HIV was thought to be a "gay disease" and the origin of the pandemic was unknown. Today, we know different. Here are quick facts on the origin of HIV:

• In 2008, there were 33.4 million people living with HIV globally
• There were nearly 3 million new infections in 2008
• Two million AIDS related deaths occurred in 2008

Guide Mark Cichocki, R.N. provides HIV estimates, facts from around the world, breakdowns by ethnicity and other HIV data and statistics on About.com's HIV/AIDS site.