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 Report Shows 48% Hike In US HIV
Cases
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 28, 2008 - 11:00 am ET
(Washington) Reported new HIV infections in the United States
increased by 48 percent in 2006 according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The stunning figures, in the CDC Surveillance
Report, comes in advance of a long anticipated in depth review of HIV infections
that was to have been released early this year but is believed to be months
away.
The CDC said last December at the HIV Prevention Conference
that it was working on new
estimation methods but the federal agency has delayed release of the document.
In its Surveillance Report the CDC this week said
there were 52,878 new HIV infections in 45 states and the District of Columbia for 2006. In 2005, CDC reported only 35,537 new infections in 38 states
and the District of Columbia.
The CDC in a statement said that the difference
in statistics is the result of additional states being counted and not an
increase in actual new diagnoses.
HIV/AIDS groups say that the numbers are
alarming, despite an increase in the number of state reporting.
The
seven new states for which CDC is reporting HIV data for the first time in 2006
are: California, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, and
Washington.
"While there are seven additional
states reporting in 2006, this does not account for the 48% jump in new
diagnoses," said Marjorie J. Hill, PhD, Chief Executive Officer
of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).
"These devastating numbers reinforce what we have known for
quite some time: that HIV prevention is under-funded and hamstrung by
ideological restrictions that force us to fight this epidemic with one hand tied
behind our back," Hill said.
In
recent months, government data have shown increases in HIV infections among
young men who have sex with men and young women in New York City, especially young people of color.
Nationally, HIV is up for MSM and
dramatically up among Black MSM. Teen pregnancy rates have also increased
for the first time since the early 1990s. Earlier this month, the CDC reported
that one quarter of teenage females have a sexually transmitted infection, with
nearly half of Black teenage females in the study infected.
Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare
Foundation, also slammed the CDC report it a "catastrophe".
HIV/AIDS groups have fought for increased prevention funding at CDC.
GMHC said that under the Bush-Cheney administration, funding for prevention at CDC has dropped
19 percent in real dollar terms.
©365Gay.com 2008
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