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Study: Succeeding
generations of gays will have higher HIV rates

Study: Succeeding
generations of gays will have higher HIV rates

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According to the results of a new study released at the international AIDS conference in Toronto on Thursday, HIV prevalence is set to skyrocket among Western gay men as they age.

According to the results of a new study released at the international AIDS conference in Toronto on Thursday, HIV prevalence is set to skyrocket among Western gay men as they age. The University of Pittsburgh report, a review of papers published in journals, indicates that the number of new cases of HIV has been rising by about 1.9% each year since 2001, which means that as gay men as a group get older, more and more of them will become HIV-positive, Agence-France Presse reports. "Ongoing incidence rates at this level will yield very high HIV prevalence rates within each generation of gay men," University of Pittsburgh researcher Ron Stall told AFP.

Although only one in 12 gay men at age 20 were infected with HIV in North America and Europe in 2001, Stall and other researchers project that the rate could rise to one in four by the time they turn 30. At age 60, the projections suggest that 58% of the men could be infected. The numbers are more dire for gay men of color: 4% of them between the ages of 15 and 22 are currently infected, while 15% between the ages of 23 and 29 are infected. At an average annual rate of increase in new infections of 4%, three quarters of black gay men in the latter age category will be infected with HIV at age 50. "It's not a new story; it has been repeated time and again in the literature in the past...an almost unbelievable incidence rate," Stall said to AFP. "African-American men who have sex with men suffer among the highest HIV prevalence rates of any risk group in the world." The report's findings only underscore the need for better ways of preventing HIV infection, instead of just treating its effects. "HIV is still an incurable disease," Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the National Center for HIV at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AFP. "In the United States, 5% [of the budget for HIV] is spent on prevention." He added: "America is more interested on treating this disease than preventing it. We can't treat our way out of this epidemic, even as a rich country." (The Advocate)

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