A new report from the CDC analyzed data on the rate of diagnoses of HIV between 2002 and 2011. The researchers, led by Anna Satcher Johnson, MPH and colleagues, used data from the CDC s National HIV Surveillance System to examine these trends. Their report was published in JAMA, and presented at the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
The researchers noted that accurate HIV diagnosis data is available for all states, which allowed their examination of long-term annual trends. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that all adults between the ages of 15 and 65 should be screened for HIV, as should pregnant women. They also recommend that those who do not fall in this age group, but who are at increased risk of HIV be screened as well.
Nearly 500,000 people in the US were diagnosed with HIV over the study period. However, about one in six individuals living with HIV are unaware of their status. The investigators found that the annual rate of HIV diagnoses fell by over 30 percent between 2002 and 2011.
For all men, the diagnosis rate fell from 36 to 26 per 100,000 individuals, and for all women from 12 to 7 per 100,000. These were percentage changes of over 27 and 49 percent for men and women respectively. In addition, for both genders, the rates among injection drug users and heterosexuals fell.
But the news was not as good for all groups. For men who have sex with men in age groups 13-24, 45-54 as well as those 55 years old and older, the rates of HIV diagnoses actually rose. In addition, for all males between the ages of 13 and 24 years, the diagnosis rate rose by over 38 percent.
In their discussion, the authors noted Among men who have sex with men, unprotected risk behaviors in the presence of high prevalence and unsuppressed viral load may continue to drive HIV transmission.
As ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross said, Such analyses are valuable in that they tell us which groups should be targeted for more intensive prevention efforts. Obviously the news is good about many groups, but clearly younger men are not incorporating the message about practices that could help them avoid HIV transmission into their behavior.