New CDC Report Shows Large Spike in HIV Cases

This week, the CDC released the 2006 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report: Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States and Dependent Areas. The report states that the number of reported cases of HIV infection in 2006 (based on 45 states and 5 U.S. dependent areas with confidential name-based HIV infection reported) was 52,878.

The new report was released with apparently no explanation from CDC about the dramatically increased figure or the differences in their reporting regarding the number of states from which the figure is based. The 2006 figure, based on 45 states, is a 48 percent increase from the 2005 figure based on 38 states, while the number of states reporting is only 18 percent greater.

The full report can be found here.

UPDATE: Community advocates have pointed out that the spike isn’t large if one considers that this is the first year both Illinois and California’s case counts have been taken into account. Both states switched to an HIV names-based reporting system in January 2006. California alone reported approximately 7,000 HIV cases in 2006.