In June 1981, the first cases of what is now known as AIDS were reported in the US.  As of December 2004, the cumulative number of AIDS cases was 877,275, including 718,002 cases in males and 159,271 cases in females, with women accounting for an increasing proportion of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs). In the same period, 9,300 AIDS cases were estimated in children under age 13.

The total estimated cumulative number of deaths from AIDS is 501,669, including 496,354 adults and adolescents, and 5,315 children under age 15.

AIDS diagnoses distribution is as follows:
The highest rate of transmission is male-to-male sexual contact (420,790), Injection
Drug Use (240,268), heterosexual contact (135,628), male-to-male sexual contact and IDU (59,719), others, including hemophilia, blood transfusion, perinatal, and risk not
reported or not identified (20,869). Perinatally acquired AIDS has declined significantly, due primarily to the use of zidovudine to prevent HIV transmission.