Gay-HIV Epidemic Continues; Black Men at Highest Risk
Gay-HIV Epidemic Continues; Black Men at Highest Risk
Feb. 5, 2001 (Chicago) -- Young men across the U.S. continue to engage in unprotected anal and oral sex. The consequence: HIV rates among young gays are higher than ever, according to new government data reported here at the 8th Annual Retrovirus Conference.
"This is a public health emergency," says Lucia V. Torian, PhD, director of the office of AIDS research for the New York City Department of Health. "Our study shows that there is a segment of people with a very high prevalence of HIV infection and very high-level risk of HIV transmission. We need to identify these people, we need to get them to health services, we need to get them and their partners into treatment so they can stop transmitting disease."
It's not just New York. Torian's study was part of the larger Young Men's Survey led by Linda Valleroy, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Valleroy and colleagues spread out across the U.S. to focus on 23- to 29-year-old men in six cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Seattle. They didn't just go to dance halls. They hit the streets in the early hours of the morning, ultimately stopping 3,000 men on their way to coffeehouses or movies, bookstores or bars, spending 45 minutes or more to take a complete behavioral inventory along with a blood sample for HIV testing.
Here's what they found. Thirty percent of black, young, gay men have HIV infection -- a rate as high as anywhere in the world, including the worst-hit parts of Africa. HIV prevalence is 15% among Hispanic gay men, 7% among white gay men, and 10% among those of other race/ethnicity. Overall, 12.3% of these young men who have sex with men also have HIV infection.
"What was really distressing to us was the 30% prevalence among African-Americans," Valleroy tells WebMD. "It is pretty much the same in all of the cities."
The news gets worse. Only 29% of the HIV-infected men even knew they were carrying the AIDS virus, and only 18% were getting medical care. In just the last six months before being interviewed, nearly half of all of the gay men -- 46% -- had unprotected anal sex.
Gay-HIV Epidemic Continues; Black Men at Highest Risk
Feb. 5, 2001 (Chicago) -- Young men across the U.S. continue to engage in unprotected anal and oral sex. The consequence: HIV rates among young gays are higher than ever, according to new government data reported here at the 8th Annual Retrovirus Conference.
"This is a public health emergency," says Lucia V. Torian, PhD, director of the office of AIDS research for the New York City Department of Health. "Our study shows that there is a segment of people with a very high prevalence of HIV infection and very high-level risk of HIV transmission. We need to identify these people, we need to get them to health services, we need to get them and their partners into treatment so they can stop transmitting disease."
It's not just New York. Torian's study was part of the larger Young Men's Survey led by Linda Valleroy, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Valleroy and colleagues spread out across the U.S. to focus on 23- to 29-year-old men in six cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Seattle. They didn't just go to dance halls. They hit the streets in the early hours of the morning, ultimately stopping 3,000 men on their way to coffeehouses or movies, bookstores or bars, spending 45 minutes or more to take a complete behavioral inventory along with a blood sample for HIV testing.
Here's what they found. Thirty percent of black, young, gay men have HIV infection -- a rate as high as anywhere in the world, including the worst-hit parts of Africa. HIV prevalence is 15% among Hispanic gay men, 7% among white gay men, and 10% among those of other race/ethnicity. Overall, 12.3% of these young men who have sex with men also have HIV infection.
"What was really distressing to us was the 30% prevalence among African-Americans," Valleroy tells WebMD. "It is pretty much the same in all of the cities."
The news gets worse. Only 29% of the HIV-infected men even knew they were carrying the AIDS virus, and only 18% were getting medical care. In just the last six months before being interviewed, nearly half of all of the gay men -- 46% -- had unprotected anal sex.
