Reported new HIV infections in the United States increased by 48 percent in 2006 according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The stunning figures, in the CDC Surveillance Report, comes in advance of a long anticipated in depth review of HIV infections that was to have been released early this year but is believed to be months away.
The CDC said last December at the HIV Prevention Conference that it was working on new estimation methods but the federal agency has delayed release of the document.
In its Surveillance Report the CDC this week said there were 52,878 new HIV infections in 45 states and the District of Columbia for 2006. In 2005, CDC reported only 35,537 new infections in 38 states and the District of Columbia.
HIV/AIDS groups say that the increase is alarming, despite an increase in the number of state reporting.
The seven new states for which CDC is reporting HIV data for the first time in 2006 are: California, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
“New CDC data showing a 48% higher incidence of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2006 compared with 2005 are just the latest piece of bad news about the sexual health of the American people,” said Marjorie J. Hill, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).
“While there are seven additional states reporting in 2006, this does not account for the 48% jump in new diagnoses. These devastating numbers reinforce what we have known for quite some time: that HIV prevention is under-funded and hamstrung by ideological restrictions that force us to fight this epidemic with one hand tied behind our back.”
In recent months, government data have shown increases in HIV infections among young men who have sex with men and young women in New York City, especially young people of color.
Nationally, HIV is up for MSM and dramatically up among Black MSM. Teen pregnancy rates have also increased for the first time since the early 1990s. Earlier this month, the CDC reported that one quarter of teenage females have a sexually transmitted infection, with nearly half of Black teenage females in the study infected.
Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called the new statistics a “catastrophe”.
“There is no other word to describe these CDC numbers which underscore the wholesale failure of US HIV prevention efforts.” Weinstein said.
“We now face $36 billion in costs associated with lifetime care and treatment of all these infected individuals,” said Whitney Engeran, III, Director, Public Health Division, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
HIV/AIDS groups have fought for increased prevention funding at CDC.
GMHC said that under the Bush-Cheney administration, funding for prevention at CDC has dropped 19 percent in real dollar terms.
Source: 365 Gay
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