According to a report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HIV diagnoses in the U.S. has increased among gays, especially among males aged 13-24.
CDC is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services which works to protect public health and safety.
It collected data on HIV/AIDS diagnoses from 2001 to 2006 in 33 states. During that time, those states had 214,379 HIV/AIDS diagnoses. Men who have sex with men account for almost half — 46 percent — of those diagnoses. Findings indicated that, during that period the number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses increased 8.6% among gays overall.
Every year from 2001 to 2006, HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men rose by 1.5 percent overall. But more worrying is the fact that when it comes to youngest men, those aged 13-24, HIV/AIDS diagnoses increased by 12 percent per year.
African-American men aged 13-24, who have sex with men saw 15 percent increase per year, while it was 9 percent among white and 8 percent among Hispanic men of the same age who have sex with men.
HIV diagnoses dropped during that time among heterosexuals who have high-risk sex, injection drug users, and men who are injection drug users who also have sex with men.
It should be noted that this report is about HIV/AIDS diagnoses, not infection rates. Although it is safe to assume that HIV infection is also rising among gays aged 13-24.
According to Richard Wolitski, PhD, acting director of the CDC’s division of HIV/AIDS Prevention:
Because these men probably have not been sexually active for a very long period of time, there’s reason to believe that these diagnoses probably represent fairly recent infections and so it’s an indication that infections may be increasing in this population.
The findings appear in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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