One in five gay and bisexual men in the United States is infected with HIV and almost half of those infected are unaware of their status, the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found.
Each year about 56,300 Americans become infected with HIV and about 18,000 die from AIDS. The CDC findings fall close to the third National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day being observed in the US on Monday.
Nineteen percent of "men who have sex with men" are HIV positive and 44 percent of those men are unaware of their infection, said the CDC study of more than 8,000 gays published Thursday in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
More than 8,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual men (or, as the CDC calls them, MSM, for men who have sex with men) were tested by researchers in the 21 American cities with the highest infection rates. The gay population in Baltimore had the highest rates of HIV infection at 38 percent, while Atlanta scored lowest with 6 percent.
The highest absolute number of infections occurred in white MSM, primarily those between the ages of 30 and 39. However, young black gay and bisexual men (aged 13 to 29) had the highest rates of HIV infection per capita, and young Hispanic MSM also had disproportionately high rates of infection.
"The findings from this analysis corroborate other surveillance data showing that HIV prevalence among MSM remains high, many HIV-infected MSM are unaware that they are infected with HIV, and minority MSM are disproportionately affected by HIV (5--6). Because MSM represent the only group with increasing HIV incidence and comprise the largest proportion of new infections (1), it is critical to target resources and prevention strategies to MSM," CDC said in a statement.
MSM account for more than half (53 percent) of all new HIV infections in the US each year, as well as nearly half (48 percent) of people living with HIV. While CDC estimates that MSM account for just 4 percent of the US male population aged 13 and older, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the US is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women.
"The high proportion of MSM unaware of their HIV infection continues to be a serious public health concern, because these MSM account for the majority of estimated new HIV transmissions in the US. Persons aware of their HIV infection often take substantial steps to reduce their risk behaviours, which could reduce HIV transmission," CDC said.
