US HIV Rates on the Rise

As reported by BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) “After years of steady rates, some health experts said they are concerned the numbers of HIV infections are on the rise in the United States. ”

With HIV individual infections at 2.4 million, America represents the third largest region with HIV infections. Initially it was among homosexual men and injecting drug users but now it is increasing among poor and less educated parts of the population. Over the last three years there has been a rise by an estimated 17% among the number of American gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV thus showing that fewer guys have safer sex.

In 2001 the rate of HIV diagnosis was 22.8 per 100,000 people, compared to 20.7 per 100,000 people in 2004.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the rates of HIV/AIDS stayed steady for the years 2000 to 2003, but sharp radical disparities remain, according to an analysis of data from 32 states. The rate of HIV/AIDS diagnosis among African-American women in 2003 was more than 18 times higher than among white women. Over the past four years the rate of HIV diagnoses has been dropping among blacks, it has dropped about 5 percent each year between 201 and 2004, but remains high among the whites. Among the diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the 32 states two third percent of diagnoses were among whites.

Uganda is one of the few countries where the rate of HIV infection has gone down and is taken as an example to follow. Uganda has helped in bringing down adult HIV prevalence from around 15% in the early 1990s to around 5% in 2001. According to UNAIDS 6.7% of the adults had the virus at the end of 2005. The country has been credited for the success. Although the rate of new HIV diagnoses (with or without a concurrent AIDS diagnosis) dropped about 5% between the years 2001 to 2004 yet the rate of diagnoses were 76 per 100,000 people whereas it was only 9 per 100,000 people in whites and 29.5 per 100,000 people in Hispanics.

According to a new data the men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of race have a greater impact of HIV. They represented 44 percent of diagnoses during four year period. High-risk heterosexual contact accounted for 34 percent of new cases, followed by injection drug users at 17 percent.
According to a new data by UNAIDS 2006 (Reports on The Global AIDS Epidemic), the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down but the new infections are continuing to increase in certain countries and regions.
• According to Worldwide HIV & AIDS Statistics (published by UNAIDS and WHO) the people living with HIV worldwide in 2005 was approximately 38.6 million.
• Adults living with HIV/AIDS in 2005 were 36.3 million.
• Women living with HIV/AIDS in 2005 were 17.3 million.
• Children living with HIV/AIDS in 2005 were 2.3 million.
• People newly infected with HIV in 2005 were 4.1 million.
• AIDS deaths in 2005 were 2.8 million.
Also according to the above data the young people between the age group of 15 to 24 years account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide. As reported around 6,000 become infected with HIV every day.

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