Posted on 07/28/2003 7:52:55 AM PDT by presidio9
The number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV (news - web sites), the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites), climbed for the third consecutive year in the United States in 2002, fueling fears that the disease might be poised for a major comeback in this high-risk group.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), which reported the finding on Monday at the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, also revealed that AIDS diagnoses overall had risen 2.2 percent to 42,136 last year.
"The AIDS epidemic in the United States is far from over," said Dr. Harold Jaffe, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.
An estimated 850,000 to 950,000 Americans have the AIDS virus. AIDS killed 16,371 people across the nation last year, about 6 percent fewer than in 2001, according to the CDC.
Although U.S. health officials have been preaching HIV prevention to all Americans, they have become particularly concerned in recent years by an apparent resurgence of infections among gay and bisexual males.
HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men surged 7.1 percent last year, according to data collected by the CDC from 25 states that have long-standing HIV reporting. New diagnoses in this high-risk group have increased 17.7 percent since 1999, while remaining stable in other vulnerable communities.
Jaffe cautioned, however, that the jump in HIV diagnoses could have been caused by increases in the number of gay and bisexual males being tested for the virus and was not proof that this group was being infected at a faster rate.
STANDARD TESTS
Standard HIV tests cannot tell when a person was infected with the virus, leaving open the possibility that HIV was contracted many years before being detected.
That could change in the coming months as the CDC implements a new HIV tracking system, which is based on a blood test that it says can determine whether a person had been infected with HIV in the previous six months.
CDC officials said the new surveillance strategy, was prompted by a need for more precise data on HIV infections and trends. About 40,000 new HIV infections are reported in the nation each year.
Since the AIDS virus first surfaced in 1981, estimates of new HIV cases have been based on the predictable length of time -- usually 10 years -- that elapsed between an initial infection and the onset of AIDS symptoms.
But the development of antiretroviral drugs has slowed the progression of AIDS and made it more difficult to predict when a person contracted HIV.
"It will provide us timely information on HIV transmission that is occurring now," said Dr. Robert Janssen, who directs HIV prevention programs at the Atlanta-based agency.
"What it will do is allow us to target our prevention programs to those areas and populations among whom HIV is being currently transmitted," Janssen added.
The CDC plans to have the system in place in 35 areas that account for 93 percent of annual HIV infections by 2004. The agency has allocated $13 million in supplemental funding to state health departments for the program in fiscal 2004.
If the people inclined to drink and drive only hurt themselves, I would not shed a tear. It is the fact that they, through their risky behaviour, take innocent people with them that is the issue. No one would "root for" innocent people to die because of the risky behaviour of someone else ... that is the entire point.
No one forces fags to engage in risky behaviors, and if their behavior results in their death alone, so be it. It is the innocent people that suffer because of the spread of HIV thru blood transfusions and bi-sexual sex. "The Lady Lawyer" is absolutely correct ... if the people engaging in the risky behaviour die, then it is a benefit to all the innocent people that will no longer be infected due to the risky behaviour of the "drunk drivers".
I saw it in The Actuary in the early 90's. Life expectancy with AIDS deaths included was low 40's, with AIDS factored out was upper 40's.
BS! To the extent that "culture" is valueless and amoral, I would agree ... they have disproptionately contributed in that area. But to the extent that roads, infrastructure, buildings, music, medicine, communications, government, and just about anything else that lays the framework for a culture and society, gays have contributed nothing outside of the roughly 2% that they comprise of the general population. And when you consider the healthcare costs, the degragation of morality and values, and the double-speak politically-correct thought-crime nonsense that they are pushing, I would posit that they are net-negative contributors to a healthy culture.
Perhaps on another diversity-friendly website you could be in a position you'd enjoy: Preaching to the choir.
Here you are definitely wasting bandwidth and gasping for air between postings.
Why not give it up Sakie?
sakic: Who else should we get rid of in order to make the planet better?
Well, as the AIDS epidemic unwinds I believe we have the deaths of at least 30 million Africans to look forward to. The world will be less colored as well as less color coordinated; It's a two-fer. I don't understand how she can have so much hate for people she doesn't know.
Somebody, tell me I've been trolled.
AIDS is NOT a virus. The spin goes on ...
Those choosing this lifestyle are only getting what they ask for; they are a self-licking ice cream cone!
What it says, I think. HIV is a virus, not AIDS.
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