The first cases of what would come to be known as AIDS were diagnosed on June 5, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. The dieases was initially known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency); however, scientists later found evidence that the disease existed in the world for some years prior, i.e., subsequent analysis of a blood sample of a Bantu man, who died of an unidentified illness in the Belgian Congo in 1959, made him the first confirmed case of an HIV infection.

Today, HIV/AIDS is the largest pandemic in human history. This section explores the statistics of that pandemic from the global perspective, all the way down to the impact in our own community.