A new government study found that the rate of HIV infections diagnosed in the United States each year has dropped by one-third over the past decade, but an IU researcher says the data is hardly cause for celebration — mainly because the infection rate has increased in young men who have sex with other men.
The study, released online last week by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 16 out of every 100,000 people ages 13 and older were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2011, a 33 percent decline from 2002, when the diagnosis rate was 24 per 100,000 people. The actual number of new HIV cases declined as well, from more than 56,000 in 2002 to just over 43,000 in 2011.
The data show declines in HIV infection diagnoses rates among men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection-drug users and most age groups. But diagnoses rates increased among young gay and bisexual men ages 13 to 24, where the number of HIV diagnoses each year rose 132 percent — from nearly 3,000 in 2002 to almost 7,000 in 2011.
“We have made some strides, but we still have a long way to go,” said Brian Dodge, associate professor in Indiana University’s School of Public Health. “I would say the next AIDS generation will be young men having sex with men, which includes men who have sex with both men and women.”
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