In the USA today, the Center for Disease Control has released important figures about the spread of HIV. The headline figure, as an excellent piece in the New York Times has it, is that new HIV infections have remained steady:
Despite years of great progress in treating AIDS, the number of new infections with the virus that causes it has remained stubbornly around 50,000 a year in the United States for a decade, according tonew figures released on Wednesday by federal officials.
The American epidemic is still concentrated primarily in gay men, and is growing rapidly worse among young black gay men.
As a post at The Grio points out, the ‘downlow’ lifestyle amongst black MSM can lead to higher chances of becoming infected with HIV; but stigma and reluctant to test are issues for us all. The one in four of those with HIV right here in the UK who are not aware that they are infected can only be diagnosed if we increase testing by normalising it – and fighting stigma. As Dr Kevin Fenton of the CDC has been saying today, “We need to do our part: speak out against stigma, get tested for HIV and commit to the fight.” We’ll be doing our part – will you?
