There are over 1.2 million people living with HIV infection in the United States alone, and 1 out of 8 of these people is unaware of their condition, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.
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According to the CDC analysis, the number of HIV diagnoses between 2005 and 2014 decreased by 19 percent over all, driven in part by dramatic declines among heterosexuals (a decrease of 35 percent), intravenous drugs users (a decrease of 63 percent), and African-Americans (a decrease of 22 percent, fueled by an marked decrease of 42 percent among black women).
“Health disparities have turned HIV from an infection into an injustice”, Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention told BuzzFeed.
For gay and bisexual men, diagnoses varied by race and ethnicity. Black and gay bisexual men between the ages of 13 and 24 increased by 87 percent over the decade, however in the last few years there was a 2 percent decline. That too has appeared to level off after 2010.
The same level of success was not uniformly seen among men who have sex with men – a group that accounts for almost two-thirds of all new HIV diagnoses in the US.
December 7, 2015-Young men who have sex with men and have detectable levels of HIV were more likely to report not using a condom during anal intercourse with a partner not infected with HIV, compared with virologically suppressed young men who have sex with men, according to researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Because HIV testing rates have been stable for gay Latino men since at least 2005, the CDC thinks that the increase in diagnoses reflect an increase in infections. New cases in gay Hispanic men, however, have continued to rise.
African First Ladies who have over the last 12 years made tremendous contribution towards ending AIDS, Mrs. Mahama noted will continue to work beyond the quest to eliminate Mother to child transmission of HIV towards securing comprehensive treatment and care for all HIV positive children.
HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, adherence and viral suppression among YMSM with HIV play a key role in preventing new infections.
New investigations in America fell by 19 percent, from 48,795 to 39,718, between 2005 and 2014.
While medications for HIV and access to those treatments improved over time, lead author Patrick Wilson said addressing unemployment, education and mental health is also important.
Eugene McCray, director of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said the increase is a problem that the CDC has not been able to explain.
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“We have the tools to stop HIV right now”. He also said more than half of newly diagnosed HIV patients are in their 20s and 30s, but they only make up a quarter of Kentucky’s population.
