CDC Says 1.1 Million Americans Infected with HIV

UNITED STATES: "CDC Says 1.1 Million Americans Infected with HIV"
Reuters (10.02.08):: Will Dunham

An estimated 1.1 million Americans were living with HIV at the end of 2006, CDC reported Thursday. The prevalence rate, 447.8 cases per 100,000 population, was based on reports of new HIV infections from 40 states with the best data, AIDS diagnoses and deaths from all 50 states, and extended back-calculation. The number of people living with HIV is growing as more people become infected and as effective treatments delay AIDS-related deaths.

The estimate is similar to a 2003 CDC report that more than 1 million Americans had HIV. Using the improved surveillance data, CDC now estimates that 994,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in 2003.

"These data really show the continued impact that the epidemic is having on Americans, and they really reinforce the severe toll that is expected on multiple communities," said Richard Wolitski, acting chief of CDC's HIV/AIDS prevention division.

The data show the epidemic disproportionately affects African Americans and gay and bisexual men. Males comprised 74.8 percent of prevalent HIV cases; 48.1 percent of all cases were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. High-risk heterosexual sex accounted for 27.6 percent of infections, including 72.4 percent of cases among women. Injection drug use was the cause of 18.5 percent of HIV cases. African Americans represented 46.1 percent of all people living with HIV in 2006.

In 2006, one in five Americans with HIV - 232,700 - did not know they were infected.

"We're not going to be able to treat our way out of this epidemic," Wolitski said. "We need to have strong prevention programs so we can prevent these infections from occurring in the first place."

The report, "HIV Prevalence Estimates - United States, 2006," was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2008;57(39):1073-1076).