In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly revising HIV infections in the U.S. to 56,000 annually, a 40 percent increase over the longstanding estimate of 40,000 annual HIV transmissions – a number that has held steady since 1994.
CDC investigators used the new Serologic Testing Algorithm for Recent HIV Seroconversions (STARHS) method, employing a modified antibody test called the BED HIV-1 capture enzyme immunoassay that can determine whether infection occurred within the past 5 months. While standard HIV antibody tests show whether or not a person has the virus, they cannot determine how recently infection occurred; many people are diagnosed with HIV long after they become infected. In addition, several states have reported only AIDS cases, not HIV infections, by name in previous years, leading to incomplete data.
Investigators analyzed a subset of 6864 leftover serum samples from the 39,400 individuals aged 13 or older who were newly diagnosed as HIV positive during 2006 in 22 states with consistent name-based HIV reporting.
The new estimate follows a CDC report from June of this year that showed that HIV/AIDS diagnoses among men who have sex with men increased 8.6 percent from 2001–2006. Gay and other men who have sex with men accounted for 46 percent of the total U. S. diagnoses during the reporting period, with the number of HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed among young (aged 13-24) black men who have sex with men nearly doubling during the period. HIV incidence rates are likely to be as troubling for Latino and other men of color who have sex with men, given that California and other large states were excluded from this study.
“Better numbers tell us that we need to better target and tailor our scarce prevention dollars,” said Craig E. Thompson, executive director of APLA. “Gay men and other men who have sex with men of every race and ethnicity are the single largest group affected by HIV/AIDS in this country. Under-funded, ‘cookie-cutter’ prevention is no longer viable if we want to control the epidemic in the United States.”
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