Number of HIV Infections in US Greater Than Previous Estimates

The number of HIV infected cases in the United States is greater than previously estimated. the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, infects 40 percent more Americans than the government has long estimated, a new study reveals.

At least 56,300 cases of new H.I.V. infections are occurring nationally each year, which is 40 percent more than previous estimates, according to the new study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"CDC's first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is -- and has been -- worst than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006," the CDC said in a statement.

"This figure is roughly 40 percent higher than CDC's former estimate of 40,000 infections per year, which was based on limited data and less precise methods."

The CDC findings, released yesterday by the CDC on the eve of the 17th International AIDS Conference, in Mexico City, confirm that the deadly virus has its greatest effect among gay and bisexual men of all races and among African-American men and women. Gay men accounted for 53% of new infections in 2006.

More than 28,000 new infections occurred among men who have sex with men in 2006, while 17,000 were among heterosexuals and 15,000 women were newly infected in the United States, the new estimates show.

"These data are confirming what we had known before," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.
"It also mirrors what we see about sexually transmitted diseases and changes in risk behaviour among men who have sex with men."

The findings, which appear in the Aug. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, do not mean that the AIDS epidemic is growing in this country, instead the figures are just more accurate estimates the researchers have provided, said Dr. Fenton.

"It's like shifting from standard view to wide screen (high-definition television)," Fenton added.

The global pandemic, HIV AIDS is spreading like forest fire worldwide, affecting an estimated 33 million people globally. The infection has taken the lives of nearly 25 million people since mid-1980s, when the HIV was first isolated.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) by infecting helper T cells of the immune system.

According to the fact sheet prepared by the CDC, HIV spreads by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles and/or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected, or, less commonly (and now very rarely in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies), through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors.