The HIV epidemic in the United States has changed its course in the past few years. The main risk group of the past, homosexual males, has reduced numbers of new infections because of education and prevention. Other groups, including intravenous drug abusers, disadvantaged urban socioeconomic classes and adolescents, continue to be infected and to transmit HIV by needle sharing and/or unprotected heterosexual activity. Many of these newly infected individuals are women of child-bearing age. These women in turn infect their children. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that there will be 2,000 infected infants born to 6,000 HIV-positive mothers annually in the United States.