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New CDC Numbers
May Show Dramatic Increases in HIV Infections

New CDC Numbers
May Show Dramatic Increases in HIV Infections

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The Washington Blade is reporting that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is debating when to release what the story called "alarming new statistics" showing that up to 50% more Americans are being infected with HIV annually than the government previously reported. AIDS activist groups familiar with the CDC told the Blade that middle-level officials at the agency have quietly told professional and scientific colleagues that the number of new infections was as high as 58,000 to 63,000 cases in the most recent 12-month period.

The Washington Blade is reporting that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is debating when to release what the story called "alarming new statistics" showing that up to 50% more Americans are being infected with HIV annually than the government previously reported.

AIDS activist groups familiar with the CDC told the Blade that middle-level officials at the agency have quietly told professional and scientific colleagues that the number of new infections was as high as 58,000 to 63,000 cases in the most recent 12-month period.

"It seems to be a poorly kept secret," Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told the Blade. "Everybody who has dealings with the CDC is talking about it."

On its Web site the CDC states that about 40,000 Americans become infected with the disease each year. According to the site, that statistic has remained "relatively stable" for most of the past decade.

CDC officials have told AIDS advocacy group leaders that the statistics are being withheld while they undergo a stringent peer review process by an unidentified scientific journal. The journal is expected to publish the findings within the next month.

Two unidentified sources told the Blade that CDC officials have said privately that the higher numbers reflect more rigorous and accurate HIV reporting of existing cases, not an increase in new cases. The law has required that AIDS cases be reported since the beginning of the epidemic, in the early 1980s, but mandatory reporting of HIV cases began only recently. (The Advocate)

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