“These estimates are a sobering reminder that gay and bisexual men face an unacceptably high risk for HIV and of the urgent need for action,” said Dr. Eugene McCray, director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. “If we work to ensure that every American has access to the prevention tools we know work, we can avoid the outcomes projected in this study.”
READ: HIV/AIDS: 6 Ways To Protect Yourself Beyond Condoms
In general, black people have the greatest lifetime HIV risk — one in 20 for men and one in 48 for women, the analysis showed. The overall lifetime HIV infection rate in white men is one in 132, while for white women, it’s one in 880, the CDC said.
Others at high risk, according to the report, include injectable drug users, particularly women who inject drugs.
Southerners also have greater odds of a lifetime HIV diagnosis compared to other Americans, according to the report. Residents of the nation’s capital face the worst odds — one in 13 for those in Washington, D.C. — followed by one in 49 in Maryland, and one in 51 in Georgia.
The study was scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Feb. 23, 2016, presentation, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Boston
CDC Says Report That Half Of Gay Black Men May Be Diagnosed With HIV Is “A Call To Action” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
