HIV Takes Heaviest Toll on African Americans, Especially Young Gay Males

There are 33 million people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) worldwide with 25 million lives having been claimed by it. There is still no cure and no vaccine available for the prevention of HIV although there are drugs that can help control the infection.
The last stage of HIV infection is AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The AIDS virus is transmitted in bodily fluids such as blood, semen and breast milk with sexual contact being the most common method of transmission. The use of contaminated needles and blood transfusions can also cause infection.
Recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 56,300 people in the U.S. become infected with HIV annually, which far surpasses previous estimates of about 40,000. The CDC has now found that HIV has the heaviest impact on men who have sex with men (MSM). This group of men includes gays, bisexuals and men who have an occasional sexual encounter with other men.
In a new report from the CDC the authors write, “The male-to-male sexual contact transmission category represented 72 percent of new infections among males, including 81 percent of new infections among whites, 63 percent among blacks, and 72 percent among Hispanics.” The report explains that more than half of the new infections in 2006 were among gay and bisexual men, with 46 percent among whites, 35 percent among blacks and 19 percent in Hispanics. However, among the overall U.S. population, more blacks are affected at more than 45 percent.
Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS, said at a news conference, “The number of new HIV infections among young black men who have sex with men is alarming.” Similarly, Richard Wolitski, PhD, acting director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS Prevention said that the astonishingly heavy impact of HIV on African-American women is no less alarming.
The CDC now sees the need to intensify prevention efforts targeting the black community as the report read, “The alarming number of new infections among young black MSM underscores the need to ensure that each new generation has the knowledge and skills to prevent HIV infection beginning early in their lives.” Additionally, the CDC wrote, “African-Americans make up 12 percent of the total U.S. population, yet represented 45 percent of new HIV infections in the United States in 2006.”
Other findings listed in the report include that 27 percent of new infections are among girls and women with high-risk sexual contact with men, which causes 80 percent of new infections. The authors also noted, “Among females, 61 percent of infections were in blacks, 23 percent were in whites, and 16 percent were in Hispanics.”
The bottom line of the facts are that young black men, ages 13 to 29, who have sex with men get HIV more often than any other age or racial group and African-American men are six times more likely to get HIV than are white men. In addition, African-American women are 15 times more likely to get HIV than white women.
The new CDC report was published in the Sept. 12 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.