CDC: HIV Rate Is
a Crisis

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged a House panel to back additional programs for sexual protection and education for African-Americans, Latinos, and gay and bisexual men, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The testimony at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform follows the new numbers on HIV infection rates in the United States.

The CDC reported in August at the International AIDS Conference that the rate of HIV infection had been underestimated by 40% every year for more than a decade. Its revised numbers indicate that there are 56,300 new infections annually, as opposed to the original figure, which claimed 40,000.

"We need to do so much more than we're doing right now," CDC director Julie Gerberding said at the conference. "And we need to get AIDS back on the radar screen ... this is something that is still posing a threat to college students and to young men and women across our nation's fabric."

More than 1 million Americans have HIV, according to the CDC. The United States has a higher infection rate than any other Western nation except Switzerland, according to a report on the new figures in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Men who have sex with men accounted for more than half of the new infections in 2006, the most recent year for which figures were available. The rate of HIV infections among the black population is seven times higher than the rate for whites. The rate for Latinos is three times higher than that of whites.

President Bush's HIV outreach has consisted mainly of efforts in developing countries with high infection rates in Africa and Asia. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)