AIDS
AIDS is the current major plague affecting the world. The AIDS virus was first identified in 1981. By 1990, an estimated 10 million people had been infected. By 2004, that figure had risen to 78 million people. Of those 78 million people, 38 million have died and 39 million continue to live with the virus. The virus is believed to have come from the rain forest in Congo in 1979.