On June 5, 1981 the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, U.S. announced the presence of a rare, infectious disease in five American homosexuals . Soon doctors were finding similar cases all over the country and the world. The AIDS epidemic had officially begun. By 1983 it was clear that AIDS had spread around the world. More than twenty years later, AIDS has left twenty-six million dead and another forty million infected.  AIDS has become the worst medical disaster ever experienced by mankind. Hundreds of young people between the ages of 20 and 45 died each week during the early years of the U.S. AIDS. More than 600,000 cases of AIDS have been reported since 1981 in the United States, and it is estimated that there may be as many as 900,000 Americans infected with HIV. Though the rate of HIV infections continues to increase in the United States, the number of AIDS cases has fallen sharply since 1996, when antiretroviral drugs came onto the market. Unfortunately, the AIDS epidemic continues today in Africa and much of Asia, where antiretroviral treatment is not available and health care is far from enough. AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, and the No. 1 cause of death due to infectious disease. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was first separated in 1983 by a team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. That discovery made it possible to develop a test for AIDS and trace back to victims who may have died before doctors were aware of the disease. However, scientists still don't know exactly how and where AIDS started. Finding the source of AIDS could be important in developing a vaccine  and be important in mapping the future course of the epidemic. Which areas are the most worrying places where AIDS spreads quickly?
Africa. Asia. The United States. France.