A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that although the annual diagnosis rate of HIV has dropped by one-third in the general population, the percentage is increasing among young gay and bisexual males.
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been dropping among heterosexuals, drug users, and women, but the rate for young gay and bisexual males has risen over 100%.
Co-author Amy Lansky, deputy director for surveillance, epidemiology, and laboratory sciences at the CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said that because the AIDS epidemic was first reported in the 1980s, young people are inured to the disease’s preponderance. She said, "It's been more than 30 years since the first cases were reported. It's harder to maintain that sense of urgency."
To make matters worse, the cases studied in the CDC report only dealt with those actually diagnosed with HIV, and health officials estimate there are many more cases where people have the infection unknowingly. Another problem is that the data collected does not include the date when the disease was contracted, which makes determining trends of the disease difficult to pinpoint.![]()
