Rate of new HIV infections worse (40% higher) than thought, U.S. officials say

Source: Associated Press

The number of Americans infected by the virus that causes AIDS each year is much higher than the government previously estimated, U.S. health officials said Saturday, acknowledging that they had understated the level of the epidemic.

The United States is now thought to have had roughly 56,300 new HIV infections in 2006, a dramatic increase from the 40,000-a-year estimate used for the last dozen years. The new figure is because of a better blood test and new statistical methods, and not a worsening of the epidemic, officials said.

... The revised figure from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the methodology behind it were to be presented Sunday, the opening day of an international AIDS conference in Mexico City.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/02/aids-statistics.html

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Much longer story from Reuters here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0241418020080802?sp=true

little silver rings don't work as well they thought.

No matter how much they preach, people are going to fuck.

It's going to be a real hoot to see them act surprised about this.

Unfortunately, it is not a hoot to the people who have gotten infected through the ignorance of prevention these sanctimonious cretins have been pushing for so many critical years.

We have to get these people out of our government. All of them. Forever.

was a "guesstimate" extrapolated from # of AIDS cases. Better data gathering and analysis has been instituted since '96. It's probably been at that incidence level for a while.

People working in prevention have been frustrated with the static 40,000 (now 56,000?) barrier, despite some innovative work (abstinence only stuff aside.) And with the estimate that 25% of Americans infected don't know it and don't test. They find out, sadly, when something happens and they go to an ER or their doc. It's an Oh shit moment, for many. They've been infected for a while at that point.

There are fewer "boots on the ground' than in the early days of the epidemic, especially among communities of color, monolingual Spanish speaking communities, transient communities. It's changing, but it's a catch up game at this point. Level funding or funding cuts have hampered new programs, new approaches. "AIDS fatigue" may be a part of this as well, especially after the advent of multi-drug cocktails in '96.

It'll be interesting to hear what the CDC has to say in its full report tomorrow.

"More than 28,000 of the new infections are among men who have sex with men, the new estimates show. Close to 17,000 are among heterosexuals -- and 15,000 of these are women."

So only 2,000 of them were heterosexual men???

BULLSHIT. This Dr. Kevin Fenton must be another Bush appointee. It's obvious what he is trying to imply here.

It's a simple fact. It's people who have sex with men who are most at risk.

of course, that's not how it works, but I would think that it would be closer to 50/ 50 among the heterosexuals.

And yes, men have less probability of contracting HIV from vaginal intercourse than do women. It's simple biology. But there is no necessary connection between the 2,000 number and the 15,000 number.

While a woman, or recipient of anal sex, takes a great deal of fluid into the body and keeps it there from ejaculation. Its just simple probability. Also check out the fact that circumcised men get it less, possibly because thicker skin on penis head or more exposure of the virus to air.

about their possible means of transmission. The risk of F to M transmission is extremely low. I knew a couple of IV users who claimed to have contracted the virus from heterosexual encounters because they did not want to deal with the added stigma.

particularly suspect of any official word about viruses, because the vaccine industry makes an enormous amount of moolah, when they get the fear tactic in place, so that they can prep us for the new mandatory HIV vaccine they'll probably come up with!

...have ocurred?

I've heard it compared to diabetes which also kills Americans.

But people have lost their terror of being infected by it. Hope that new breakthrough is up and running faster than we can produce blase idiots.

... I would recommend not believing anything coming out now from CDC. As hard (and painful) as it is to believe, CDC has been as intellectually corrupted as every other federal agency now covered with the monkey-shit that the Chimpster slings.

BTW, the CDC estimate for the total number of HIV infections in the US has remained basically unchanged since 1987 (which shows how wrong their initial estimates were back then).

Having said that (and in the words of a great HIV prevention poster from that same time period),
"If you can't keep it zipped, ... keep it covered."

for all manner of offenders.

it's DOABLE -- get it done.

as long as human beings fuck -- this virus is going to reek havoc.

There is no doubt that the U.S. IS the prison capital.

Many individuals contract life-threatening contagious diseases while in jail or prison who do not have "access" to healthcare.

It is widely known that the diseases in prisons are spreading to outside communities and becoming epidemics affecting the general population. No one cares about correctional healthcare, but the diseases within correctional institutions emerge in communities from prison administrators, staff, guards, and inmates.

Healthcare in the U.S. is the modern holocaust operating in plain view that is widely accepted as just an "access" problem.

You see, it's actually GOOD that we have more HIV cases, NOT bad. Telling everything as a positive--- fucking unbelievable.