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Young black gay and bisexual men
under age 30 are acquiring HIV at a rate of 5.9 percent annually, three times
the rate for white men who have sex with men, according to a US study presented
Monday at the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington. The HIV
infection rate for black MSM over age 18 was 1.5 times that of their white MSM
peers. The study enrolled 1,533 black MSM participants and was conducted from
2009 to 2011.
Of the 88.8 percent who reported
being HIV-negative or of unknown HIV status, 12 percent tested HIV-positive at
the study’s beginning. The study sites were Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, New York, and Washington.
“People are much more likely to
practice safer sex if they know that they’re infected,” said Dr. Kenneth Mayer,
a study leader with the Fenway Institute in Boston. “So if you have a lot of
people who are assuming they’re not infected or unwilling to deal with it,
these are people who are much more likely to transmit HIV to their partners.”
During the study, participants
acquired HIV at a rate of 2.8 percent per year, while the younger MSM got
infected at a rate of 5.9 percent annually. People with HIV had higher rates of
poverty and unemployment, and newly diagnosed MSM were six to seven times more
likely to have multiple untreated STDs, which can increase the risk of
transmitting and acquiring HIV.
“The rates of infection that we’ve
documented in this study are higher than the rates of many countries in
Africa,” Mayer said. “What emerges is a picture of people who are alienated
from the health care system.”
A continuing focus is increasing
testing and treatment among more black MSM and addressing underlying
socioeconomic issues that may put these men at risk, said Dr. Kevin Fenton,
director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB
Prevention.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
