Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS is the final stage of a person infected with HIV. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) can be transmitted from one person to another through exposure of bodily fluids such as blood from sharing a needle with an HIV infected person, vaginal and rectal fluids or semen from sexual intercourse, and breast milk from a HIV infected mother to her child which is referred to as "Perinatal Transmission of HIV ". HIV transmission from mother to child can occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery of the child and most commonly, through breastfeeding. Nearly % of HIV infected women will pass the virus to their children during one of these stages after conception. HIV infection, a serious case by itself from the start, is hardly ever recognized since the symptoms are flu-like. Without getting tested in a clinic or hospital, there is nearly no possibility that a person can know they are infected with the virus. Perinatal Transmission of HIV, or in other words, vertical transmission of HIV is especially a grave concern since the child can be infected with the virus without the mother ever knowing she had HIV. The child can grow up to find out that heshe is infected with the virus without having any sexual intercourse or injectionvaccination in hisher lifetime. People from different races and vulnerable groups are affected by this infection more than Caucasians.
At the end of 2009, around 10,834 people were diagnosed with the virus before the age of 13. 9,522 of these people were perinatally infected. (CDC, 2014) Race is an important concept buried within the data. Minority groups such as African Americans, and Latinos were observed to have a higher rate of perinatal transmission of HIV than Caucasian's. With the highest ranking of 63%, African Americans are followed by HispanicsLatinos at 22% with the lowest of three races, at 13% Caucasians.