HIV Study: Second Wave Affecting Young Black Gays

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a
new study Thursday, the results of which could
indicate a “second-wave” AIDS epidemic, The
Washington Post
reported.

Positive HIV status among young gay men has been
rising 12% each year since 2001, the study showed,
with the steepest increase among young black men.
“These men represent a new generation that has not
been personally affected by AIDS in the same way that
their older peers have,” Richard Wolitski,
acting director of HIV/AIDS prevention at the CDC, told
the Post
.

Not enough is being done to prevent the spread
of the infection, according to Phill Wilson, head of
the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles. “When
you see a 15% yearly increase, that is an epidemic that is
out of control,” Wilson told the Post
. “And yet we
don’t see a response that recognizes it is
an epidemic out of control.”

Ron Simmons, president of Us Helping Us, an AIDS
organization for gay black men, suggested that powerful
antiretroviral therapy might have lessened the
fear of AIDS within the gay community. “I can
remember going to a funeral every four or five
days. Now if you talk to some of these young men,
they say, 'If I do get infected, I will simply take the
blue pill or the pink pill, like my
friend,’” Simmons told the
Post
. (
The Advocate
)