Every nine and a half minutes someone becomes infected with HIV.

More than 30 million people have died from the disease since 1981.

In 2008, more than 2 million children under 15 years old were living with HIV/AIDS.

Today, there are 34 million people worldwide that have HIV/AIDS.

HIV causes AIDS. HIV attacks the immune system therefore leaving the body to be more vulnerable to catch colds, life-threatening infections and cancers. “These are called opportunistic infections because they take the opportunity to attack when a person’s immune system is weak,” according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

HIV can be found in tears, saliva, blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, nervous system tissue and spinal fluid. Only the semen, vaginal secretions, blood and breast milk are able to transmit infection to others.

HIV has proven to be transmitted through intercourse, and through the blood by sharing needles. A pregnant woman can give the virus to her fetus through their shared blood circulation, or by breast-feeding.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, “an HIV-positive person is said to have AIDS when his or her immune system becomes so weak it can’t fight off certain kinds of infections and cancers, such as PCP (a type of pneumonia) or KS (Kaposi sarcoma, a type of cancer that affects the skin and inter organs in HIV), wasting syndrome (involuntary weight loss), memory impairment, or tuberculosis.”

AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death among people ages 25 to 44 in the United States.

On December 1, President Barack Obama vowed to provide AIDS treatment to 6 million people worldwide by 2012.

Long-term effects of HIV-positive people on anti-HIV drugs are increased risks of heart disease and diabetes. Some experience changes in their body shape and in their appearance by an increased or decreased amount of fat in their face, neck, shoulders, breasts or belly. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, “experts aren’t sure whether these changes in body fat are due to the HIV itself, or to the anti-HIV drugs.” The visible changes of body fat look like tumors on the body.

Taking medication for HIV can be difficult. Sometimes, the side effects aren’t worth taking the medication, and other times the medicine just doesn’t work. When a drug does help a person, the medicine may become less effective and stop working. Unfortunately, it is not always clear if HIV is what causes someone’s death.

In 2010, more than 6 million people were getting life-saving AIDS drugs, compared to just 400,000 in 2003. Suppressing the virus through treatment reduces the risk of spreading HIV by 96 percent, according to studies. Obama said by 2013 the U.S. aims “to provide anti-retroviral drugs to more than 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women worldwide.”

Only 23 percent of children that have HIV/AIDS who need treatment are actually getting it, according to the World Health Organization. In 2010, 250,000 children died of HIV-related complications. According to Dr. Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, that’s like 700 dying each day, “without treatment, half of the children born with HIV die before their second birthday.”

This year marks the 30th year since the first AIDS case was documented. This was a long tough battle against one of the greatest threats to mankind and that the fight on AIDS still isn’t over, but it’s a nice step forward.