For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke - 213.201.1525
EMAIL:jburke@apla.org
HIV INFECTIONS IN U.S. REACH ONE MILLION AS AFRICAN AMERICANS AND GAY MEN
REMAIN VULNERABLE
U.S. Prevention Conference Underscores Need for Increased Testing, Treatment
and
Prevention for At Risk Populations
Los Angeles, CA, June 13, 2005 – At the 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data projecting one million HIV infections in the U.S. at the end of 2003, with HIV prevalence high among African Americans, gay men and male adolescents.
The estimates indicate that between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000 Americans are living with HIV, of whom 74 percent are male, 47 percent are black, and one fourth are unaware of their infection. Some 40,000 individuals become infected with HIV each year.
By risk group, men who have sex with men (MSM) account for 45 percent of the population living with HIV. Progression to full-blown AIDS is highest among black males, black females and Latino males.
At the same time, experts warn that females, non-Latino blacks and people infected through high-risk heterosexual sex may account for a greater percentage of the HIV-positive population in the future.
“This is a heartbreaking milestone in HIV’s devastating march
through young, vulnerable and underserved populations,” said Craig E.
Thompson, executive director of AIDS Project Los Angeles. “This data
points out an extraordinary lack of access to information and care for too
many people in our most vulnerable communities. Sound the alarms, because HIV
is marking gay, black and Latino lives in numbers we can’t ignore.”
The U.S. Prevention Conference, organized by the CDC and other agencies, comes
four years after the CDC set a national HIV prevention goal to reduce the number
of new HIV infections in the United States from an estimated 40,000 to 20,000
per year by 2005, focusing particularly on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities
in new HIV infections.
Presentations at the conference will highlight prevention challenges for MSM, in particular those on the “down low” and those using crystal methamphetamine, as well as challenges for prevention and interventions for women. A comprehensive review of prevention specifically for people living with HIV is also scheduled.
“In our shared goal to halve new infections we are clearly behind,” said Thompson. “This conference will force us to ask several hard questions: What kind of prevention work can we do to reverse these trends? What do we owe the populations who are at risk in terms of relevant, honest information? Where do political will and public health intersect? We need answers to these questions, and we can’t wait long to get them.”
AIDS Project Los Angeles, one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Founded by four friends in 1982, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.
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