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Aug 12, 2011
The number of Americans newly infected with the AIDS virus each year has been holding steady at about 50,000, according to a government report released Aug. 3.
But a U.S. health official said just keeping the number stable was unacceptable, noting a dramatic increase in new HIV cases among young gay and bisexual black men.
“We’ve made accomplishments in driving down the rate of new infections,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, the AIDS prevention chief for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The charge now is to continue that trajectory and take that 50,000 down further.”
The annual number of new infections peaked at 130,000 in the mid-1980s, he said.
Gay and bisexual men account for the majority of the new cases – nearly two-thirds in 2009. Heterosexuals accounted for 27 percent and injection drug users represented 9 percent of new infections.
