A new estimate of how many Americans have the AIDS virus raises the number to about 1.1 million, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday. The U.S. population is currently about 300 million. The CDC figure, based on 2006 data, shows the percentage of the population living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS growing, as people become newly infected and as more patients survive due to new HIV drugs. The report suggests that past estimates that more than 1 million Americans were living with HIV overstated the actual number of people with HIV infections at the time. “These data really show the continued impact that the epidemic is having on Americans, and they really reinforce the severe toll that is experienced in multiple communities, " the CDC's Richard Wolitski told Reuters. Globally, 33 million people have HIV, and 25 million have died of AIDS.
