New HIV diagnoses in gay men rise
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, November 26, 2003
WASHINGTON — The number of gay men newly diagnosed with HIV infection was 17 percent higher last year than in 1999, according to data released Wednesday by government epidemiologists. The increase provides more evidence that the epidemic is resurging in that high-risk group of people.
Among ethnic groups, Hispanics had the largest rise in cases, with 26 percent more people first diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus last year than four years ago. Among whites, the number of new diagnoses in 2002 was only 8 percent higher than the number of new diagnoses in 1999. The number of blacks and Asians newly diagnosed in those two years remained stable.
The information, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes from 29 states that count all new positive HIV tests each year. The data are considered the best window onto the state of the AIDS epidemic nationwide. The trends are similar to ones announced earlier this year from a smaller number of states.
"We need to remind not just the groups at risk, but the American public, that HIV and AIDS is not over in the United States," said Ronald Valdiserri, a physician and epidemiologist at the CDC.
Several European countries and Australia have also seen a rise in the number of new HIV diagnoses in gay men in recent years. Experts attribute the trend to two things: a complacency about risky behavior that arose in the wake of lifesaving antiretroviral therapy; and the coming of age of a new generation of gay men with no memory of the epidemic’s early, devastating years.
