CDC: U.S. HIV Rates Higher Than Previously Thought

The U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to
announce that the HIV infection rate in the United States is
as much as 40% higher than previously reported. The
announcement will come on Sunday at the
International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

According to
Housing Works, an HIV and homeless advocacy group, the CDC
will announce the new figures for the 15-year period between
1991 and 2006, which were reported in the past as
being 40,000 new cases per year. The new figure may
reach up to 56,000 cases per year. The agency is also
expected to report rises in HIV infection rates among
African-Americans and Latinos, especially men who have
sex with men.

"The CDC report
demonstrates, once again, that the numbers on AIDS in
the U.S. simply don't add up," Housing Works president and
CEO Charles King said in a press release. "This 40%
percent increase in the annual incidence of HIV should
serve as a bombshell wake-up call to both senators
Obama and McCain that America's response to domestic AIDS
has failed. We need a comprehensive, national blueprint for
ending AIDS, and that blueprint is a national AIDS
strategy." (The Advocate)