First AIDS increase recorded in 10 years

The number of diagnosed AIDS cases in this country is up for the first time since 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which presented its findings Tuesday at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. The increase is 1% overall, which scientists say is too small to call a trend. Still, Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, said the 1% increase is "very worrying," according to the Los Angeles Times. Also worrying is the 14% increase in new HIV infections among gay men between 1999 and 2001. There are now as many as 950,000 people in the United States who are HIV-positive, "more than at any point in the epidemic," Valdiserri said.