PHILADELPHIA (BP)--In the United States, the AIDS death rate is down, and the quality and length of life for AIDS/HIV patients is up. Many Americans have been lulled into complacency about the disease, various reports indicate.  It’s a different story in Africa.

Worldwide
· 60 million affected since the epidemic began two decades ago
· More than 3 million deaths in 2002
· 13.4 million children orphaned by AIDS by end of 2001

• In 2004 nearly one-third of adults and about two-fifths of children were identified as black, Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian or Alaska Native.
• Fourteen percent of Americans in 2004 identified themselves as Hispanic
  • 12 percent as black
  • 4 percent as Asian Non-Hispanic
• In 2004, 14 percent of the U.S. population identified themselves as Hispanic and 4 percent as Asian 
• In 2003 more than 60 percent of black and Hispanic children under 18 years of age and more than one-half of the black and Hispanic population age 65 years and over were poor or near poverty
• In 2003 the fertility rate for Hispanic women (96.9 births per 1,000 Hispanic women 15–44 years) was 66 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white women (58.5 per 1,000)