The number of new H.I.V. infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, even as AIDS deaths and overall H.I.V. infection rates in the city have steadily declined.

New figures from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that the annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, and rose for all men under 30 who have sex with men by 32 percent.

At a time when the number of new cases among older gay men is dropping — by 22 percent in New York City during the same period — AIDS experts are bearing down on what they say is a worrisome and perplexing growth of H.I.V. infection among young men like Mr. Arriola.

So far, they say, the significant factors feeding the trend appear to be higher rates of drug use among younger men, which can fuel dangerous sex practices, optimism among them that AIDS can be readily treated, and a growing stigma about H.I.V. among gays that keeps some men from revealing that they are infected. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of new infection cases among young white men who have sex with men, but still that group had fewer new cases in 2006: 100, compared with 228 among blacks and 165 among Hispanics.

The rising rates for young men in New York City come as federal health officials acknowledge that infection rates nationwide, while flat, may be substantially higher than previously thought because of underreporting.

Answering AIDS Denialists and AIDS Lies

The Durban declaration states: "The evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1 or HIV-2 is clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous, meeting the highest standards of science." And also, "HIV causes AIDS. It is unfortunate that a few vocal people continue to deny the evidence. This position will cost countless lives."

What bona fide AIDS researchers and activists will and will not do when countering AIDS denialists
We will:

Expose the lies and the factual misrepresentations made by the denialists, particularly when these appear in the mainstream media.
Expose individual cases of avoidable illness or death caused by the actions of denialists.
Make supervising authorities or professional organizations aware of conduct by AIDS denialists, particularly scientists, journalists and civil servants, which breaches the normal standards of professional ethics or competence.
Assist investigative journalists in uncovering the financial links between AIDS profiteers and the AIDS denialists who provide mutual support to each other.
Provide factual information on HIV/AIDS to legitimate, mainstream journalists and bona fide members of the public (i.e. not AIDS denialists or agent provocateurs).

We will not:

Engage in any public or private debate with AIDS denialists or respond to requests from journalists who overtly support AIDS denialist causes. The reasons are:

The debate has been settled: HIV causes AIDS, AIDS kills, and AIDS can be treated with significant success by the use of antiretroviral therapy. These are the facts.
The information proving the above is already in the peer-reviewed science literature. The scientific facts are ignored, misunderstood or willfully misrepresented by the AIDS denialists. However, it is not our role to enlighten denialists as to their inability to understand the available information.
Debating denialists dignifies their position in a way that is unjustified by the facts about HIV/AIDS. The appropriate way for dissenting scientists to try to persuade other scientists of their views on any scientific subject is by publishing research in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. For many years now, AIDS denialists have been unsuccessful in persuading credible peer-reviewed journals to accept their views on HIV/AIDS, because of their scientific implausibility and factual inaccuracies. That failure does not entitle those who disagree with the scientific consensus on a life-and-death public health issue to then attempt to confuse the general public by creating the impression that scientific controversy exists when it does not.
Our time is better spent conducting research into HIV/AIDS and/or educating the general public about the facts about this virus and the deadly disease it causes.

This November 2003 Nature article shows why debating denialists is a waste of time.

To help prevent lives from being lost due to ignorance or misunderstanding, we have assembled the content below to address the most common assertions made by AIDS denialists:

HIV, AIDS, and the Distortion of Science – Martin Delaney

Does drug use cause AIDS?

The Consequences of HIV Denialism – Dr. Robert Voigt

Joseph Sonnabend, M.D., makes it clear that denialists are including inappropriate references to him in their literature

AIDS Truth member criticizes AIDS denialists

Several denialist websites proclaim that two—even three—Nobel Prize winners question HIV as the cause of AIDS. Is this true? AIDS Truth investigates.

What our work means: Predictive value of plasma HIV RNA level on rate of CD4 T-cell decline in untreated HIV infection

HIV causes AIDS: An independent review of the evidence

Debunking the Myths of the AIDS Denialists

Response to the Seven Deadly Deceptions

CD4 Counts and Viral Load

Drugs, Disease, Denial

HIV, AIDS, and the Distortion of Science

AIDS denialism: still crazy after all these years - and still killing people in South Africa

Price of Denial by Mark Heywood

Bad Science: Former Denialists Wake Up

Lies, Damned Lies and Dr. Rath

Nature Medicine Editorial: Denying Science

The Curious Case of AIDS Denialist Roberto Giraldo

Echoes of Lysenko: State-sponsored Pseudoscience in South Africa

Correcting the AIDS Lies

HIV denialists ignore large gap in the study they cite

Denying AIDS and the Rwandan Genocide?

Misrepresentation of the Concorde trial perpetuated by AIDS denialists, particularly Anthony Brink

Words of Dr. Harvey Bialy

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