Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Newsday - February 12, 2003
Laurie Garrett, Staff Correspondent
After several years of declining AIDS numbers in the United States, thanks to successful drug treatments, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that more people were diagnosed with the disease in 2001 - the latest year for which reliable statistics are available - than the previous year, or any year since 1998.
The numbers of people newly infected with HIV, but not yet sick with AIDS, also rose, said Dr. Ron Valdeserri of the CDC in a speech. "There was a slight increase in diagnosed AIDS cases - a 1 percent increase compared to the previous year," Valdeserri said. "It is still too early to know if this represents a reversal of previous AIDS trends."
This could be an indication that the drugs that have revolutionized HIV care in the United States are losing their efficacy due to mutant viruses. But more important, Valdeserri insisted, is the trend in new infections. Based on data obtained in 25 states with mandatory HIV testing, which does not include the two highest prevalence states of New York and California, new HIV infections rose a striking 8 percent between 1999 and 2001. Among those who acquired their infection through heterosexual intercourse, the jump was 10 percent; among homosexuals, it was 14 percent. About one out of every four people infected with HIV in this country are unaware of their status, Valdeserri said, and among gay African-American men 91 percent of those found to be infected were unaware that they carried the virus.
Serious public health threats remain even among those aware of their infections. For example, Sabina Hirshfield of the Medical and Health Research Association of New York City described the sexual habits of 6,000 men who anonymously responded to a 60-question survey placed at Gay.com, a cultural and political Web site for gay men. A startling 60.5 percent admitted to having sex without condom protection within the previous year, many through liaisons established on the Internet. The unprotected sex rates were highest among men who knew they were HIV positive - 72 percent of them said they had sex without a condom.
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