Chelsea, Harlem neighborhoods top New York City for new HIV cases

Among 42 neighborhoods in metropolitan New York City, the Chelsea-Clinton section of Manhattan, which has a large gay population, has the city's second-highest rate of HIV cases--236.6 per 100,000 people, Gay City News reports. Only Harlem's Morningside Heights neighborhood has a higher rate, 236.9 per 100,000 people. "If you were to break it down by risk, you would see the highest rates among men who have sex with men," said Denis Nash of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene regarding the HIV-incidence report. In the first three months of 2003, 1,030 new HIV cases were recorded in the city, with 244 attributed to gay and bisexual men and hundreds of others that are still under investigation likely linked to unprotected sex between men, Nash said. Residents with HIV/AIDS accounted for 3.3% of the Chelsea-Clinton population, 2% of Morningside Heights, 2% of East Harlem, and 1.9% of Greenwich Village-Soho.