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New research from the AIDS Services Foundation Orange County, California compares what life was like in the 1980s for HIV-positive people to what life is like now.
Despite recent breakthroughs in HIV treatment, roughly 40,000 Americans are getting diagnosed each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even more disconcerting is the stigma attached to those living with HIV, as the fear of not being accepted consistently threatens their quality of life and mental health. A new infographic by the AIDS Services Foundation Orange County goes even deeper by looking at life as it was for those who contracted the virus in the 1980s and comparing it to what life is like now.
As it turns out, 51 percent of those living with HIV aged 13-24 do not know they have the disease; the burden of the disease is not distributed geographically (for example, the South has the highest number of cases and the Midwest the lowest number); treatment can reduce an HIV-positive persons chance of transmitting HIV by as much as 100 percent; and with the innovative drugs and therapies of today, the death rate of AIDS related complications has gone down by 83 and lives are dramatically longer and better.
Check out the infographic below.
Editor's Note: this infographic is updated from a previous version.
