Monday, July 21, 2014

HIV Rates Rise Among Homosexual Men: Federal Study

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report just released shows that HIV infection rates among young homosexual and bisexual men have doubled despite significant decreases in infection rates among all other segments of the population for more than a decade.  Meanwhile, HIV/AIDS researchers are reporting a worldwide increase in drug-resistant forms of the HIV virus.
"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. Disparities in rates of HIV among young men who have sex with men present prevention challenges and warrant expanded efforts."
-- Anna Satcher Johnson, MPH, et. al., Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

"You will have patients with resistant form, they will transmit the virus to others, and long term if this is happening in several countries in the world, we may have a re-emergence of HIV appearing with a form of virus that is resistant to the current panel of antiretroviral drugs that we have."
-- Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Nobel prize winning HIV/AIDS researcher
For background, read CDC Reports HIV Infections Rampant Among Homosexuals and also read Most HIV Homosexual Men Have Unprotected Sex, Says CDC Report as well as President Obama Commits $15 Million to Show that Gay Men Aren't the Cause of HIV/AIDS

THE KEY PROVEN FACT: Anal Sex is the Main Cause of the Spread of HIV/AIDS

UPDATE 10/2/14: HIV/AIDS is Mostly a Gay Disease, Says U.S. Government

-- From "HIV diagnoses rise among young gay men as total US cases drop" by Nicole Ostrow, Bloomberg News 7/19/14

While the number of people diagnosed with HIV in the U.S. dropped 33 percent in the last decade, new cases among young homosexual and bisexual men doubled, according to researchers who said prevention programs need to be expanded.

Better screening and prevention has driven the decline among women and people ages 35 to 44 years, a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The two-fold increase was seen among young bisexual and homosexual men age 13 to 24 years, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The findings, being released Saturday to coincide with the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, are the first to use data from all 50 U.S. states to examine long-term trends in diagnosis, said study author Amy Lansky. Though strides are being made to cut HIV, prevention and screening efforts aren't adequately reaching a younger group, she said.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "HIV diagnosis rate in U.S. declines significantly" posted at CBS News 7/21/14

The reasons for the drop aren't clear. . . .

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, which destroys the immune system. The World Health Organization estimates 35 million people globally have the virus. In the United States, 1.1 million people are thought to be infected, though many don't know it.

The study is based on HIV diagnoses from all 50 states' health departments, which get test results from doctors' office, clinics, hospitals and laboratories. The data span a decade, making this a larger and longer look at these trends than any previous study, said another study author, Amy Lansky of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Declines were seen in the rates for men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection drug users and most age groups. The only group in which diagnoses increased was gay and bisexual men, the study found.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Only 1 in 5 sexually active U.S. teens HIV-tested" by Hoai-Tran Bui, USA TODAY 7/18/14


Young people account for the largest portion of new HIV infections, but only 22% of sexually active high school students have ever been tested for HIV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

Those between 13 and 24 accounted for about 26% of all new HIV infections in 2010, and almost 60% of youths with HIV in the U.S. don't know they are infected. The new analysis, in the biennial National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, looks at high school students from 1991 to 2013, but found that the number of students getting tested has remained stagnant since 2005. In this age group, female and black students were more likely to be tested for HIV.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Many Sexually Active U.S. Teens Not Tested for HIV: CDC" by Steven Reinberg, HealthDay News Reporter 7/18/14

The CDC report, which looked at data from 1991 to 2013, . . . is based on data from the CDC's National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is a nationally representative survey done every two years among public and private school students in grades 9 to 12.
The proportion of teens who have had sexual intercourse dropped from 54 percent in 1991 to 46 percent in 2001, and remained stable at 47 percent in 2013.

Since 1991, sexual intercourse among black teens declined from 82 percent to 61 percent, among Hispanic teens from 53 percent to 49 percent, and among white teens from 50 percent to 44 percent in 2013.

The proportion of teens who had sexual intercourse with four or more partners dropped from 19 percent in 1991 to 14 percent in 2003, and has been stable since, at 15 percent.

The proportion of sexually active teens using condoms increased from 46 percent in 1991 to 63 percent in 2003, but dropped to 59 percent in 2013.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Annual rate of HIV diagnoses drops over 30 percent between 2002 and 2011 in US" posted at Wall Street Journal 7/21/14

. . . While the rate fell significantly for most groups, it witnessed a significant rise among gay and transgender community, particularly among men between the age group 13 and 24.

The rate of diagnoses rose in men who had sex with other men over the 10-year period, the researchers said.

In 2003, the rate per 100,000 increased from 12.5 percent among young people to 17.3 percent in 2011. This was an increase of 38.4 percent.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Aids deaths tumble but rising resistance to HIV drugs threatens gains" by Kat Austen, UK Guardian 7/18/14

In the runup to next week's international Aids conference in Melbourne, Australia, the UN has claimed that Aids-related deaths and new HIV infections have fallen by more than a third in a decade, raising hopes that the disease could be wiped out by 2030.

The optimism, however, is tempered by two facts: not only are more than half of the 35 million people living with HIV unaware they are infected, but the number of people with drug-resistant HIV, though relatively low, is increasing.

Deenan Pillay, director of the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in South Africa, says about 30-40% of his patients have experienced the virus replicating in their bodies after a year of treatment.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

In addition, read Pandemic Sex Diseases: Permanent Cure Dismissed and also read Fictional 'Safe Sex' - Government Losing War on STDs as well as HIV Cure: False Hope to Victims, Money to Others

And read New Aggressive HIV Strain Spreading AIDS Worldwide