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HIV Rates In New York Three Times National Average

Posted on: Thursday, 28 August 2008, 13:15 CDT

New York City health department officials announced on Wednesday that the city’s residents were contracting HIV at three time the national rate.

In 2006, 72 in every 100,000 New Yorkers became infected with HIV compared with the national average of 23 infections, the health department said.

The new findings are the result of a new formula being used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which involves testing blood samples found to be HIV-positive to determine when the infection occurred.

Officials explained the difference was due to the city’s large population of high-risk individuals such as blacks and gay men. Those groups have the highest rates of new infections and are represented in large numbers in New York City.

In 2006, about 4,800 New York citizens contracted HIV. About 100,000 New Yorkers are believed to be infected with the virus, officials said.

Half of those new infections occurred among men who have sex with men, the city's health report said.

The report also noted that black men and women are infected at three times the rate of whites.

Some 17 percent of the total number of new infections were among black men who have sex with men and blacks in general accounted for nearly half of the city's new infections.

Monica Sweeney, the city health department's assistant commissioner for HIV prevention and control, said the numbers will help New York better allocate resources to fight the epidemic.

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On the Net:

• CDC

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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