HIV diagnoses fall among blacks in US – CDC

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) – The rate of HIV diagnoses in the United
States was stable between 2001 and 2004 but fell 5 percent per
year among blacks, one of the groups hardest hit by the AIDS
epidemic, federal health officials said on Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which
released the data, said the drop in new reported HIV infections
in the black community appeared to be tied to corresponding
declines among intravenous drug users and heterosexuals.

Despite the good news, officials with the Atlanta-based
federal agency said the battle lines of the AIDS war continued
to be marked as much by race as sexual orientation and warned
high-risk groups not to be complacent about the disease.

“We must work to accelerate successes among black women and
to reduce the extremely high levels of infection among black
men who have sex with men,” said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, acting
director of the CDC’s national center for prevention of HIV,
sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis.

A total of 38,685 Americans were diagnosed with HIV in
2004, compared to 41,207 in 2001, according to the CDC study,
which was based on data from 33 states that have confidential,
name-based reporting of HIV and AIDS cases.

Blacks, who make up about 13 percent of the population,
accounted for 51 percent of the 157,252 diagnoses in the
period. Their rate of HIV diagnosis was 76.3 per 100,000 in
2004, down from 88.7 per 100,000 in 2001.

Blacks were 8.4 times more likely to be told they had the
AIDS virus in 2004 than whites. The U.S. rate was 20.7
diagnoses per 100,000 in 2004, compared to 22.8 per 100,000 in
2001.

The CDC said the drop in the national rate was not
statistically significant.

Despite the drop in diagnoses among blacks, the overall
rate has stayed steady largely because of a higher number of
gay and bisexual men testing positive for the disease.

Gay and bisexual men continued to be the group most
impacted by HIV, accounting for 44 percent of the diagnoses
between 2001 and 2004. There were 8 percent more diagnoses in
this high-risk group between 2003 and 2004.

Intravenous drug users, who can get the virus from sharing
dirty needles, made up 17 percent of the total diagnoses in the
three-year period, while heterosexuals accounted for about 34
percent of the new reported infections.

There was a 9 percent average annual decline in diagnoses
among intravenous drug users and about a 4 percent average
annual drop for heterosexuals in the period, according to the
CDC study.

Most of the intravenous drug users and heterosexuals who
tested positive for AIDS were black.

The agency said providing high-risk groups with testing and
prevention services was a key step to halting the spread of
HIV. About one-quarter of those infected are believed to be
unaware of their HIV status.

AIDS activists, however, attack the approach, which was
introduced two years ago, because they believe it leads to
reduced funding for programs that emphasize condom use and
other safe-sex practices for uninfected people.

AIDS, which destroys the immune system and leaves people
vulnerable to opportunistic infections and cancers, has killed
about a half million Americans and at least 22 million people
worldwide since 1981.

Health experts have been warning of a possible resurgence
of the epidemic, which eased in the early 1990s following the
development of antiretroviral drugs targeting the disease.