HIV Infection Rate for Young Black Men Alarming
Sep 22nd, 2008 | By admin | Category: Health
The rate of new HIV infections among young gay or bisexual black men is significantly higher than new infections among whites and Hispanics of the same age Mental-Health, the U.S Mental-Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday.
“The number of new HIV infections among young black men who have sex with men is alarming,” Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention said during a new teleconference.
Forty-eight percent of new infections among black men were among those aged 13 to 29, compared with 31 percent for whites and 21 percent for Hispanics. This finding highlights the need to reach men at an early age and teach them about HIV prevention, Fenton said.
The reasons why young black men are being infected with HIV at a relatively early age aren’t clear. Some factors may include the stigma of homosexuality, lack of access to HIV prevention services, and an underestimation of personal risk, Wolitski said.
In addition, the prevalence of HIV in the black community makes it more likely for someone to become infected, the expert said. Another theory is that many young black gay and bisexual men choose older men as partners, making it more likely for them to become infected, he said.
“What is going on with young black gay men is a clear indication of our failure to develop messages which are targeted to the communities that are most at risk,” said Kevin Frost, CEO of the Foundation for AIDS Research.
“What we need are programs that speak directly to these communities,” Frost added. “For too long, prevention in our country has been to tell everybody that they are all equally at risk of HIV. In fact, that’s really not true. Twenty-five years into this epidemic, surely we have learned certain groups of people are at greater risk and those are injected drug users, people of color and gay men, particularly gay men of color,” he said.
“A range of factors likely contributes to new transmission in these age groups,” Wolitski said. “They include difficulty in maintaining safer behaviors for many years or even decades, as well as the stigma of HIV, substance abuse and higher HIV prevalence within this group.”
For his part, Fenton said, “the heavy impact of HIV among white men who have sex with men in older age groups demonstrates the need for ongoing efforts to keep gay and bisexual men. HIV free over the course of their lifetimes.”
Travel Health Insurance For all new U.S. cases of HIV in 2006, white men who have sex with men accounted for 46 percent of cases, followed by gay or bisexual black men, who accounted for 35 percent, and Hispanic gay and bisexual men, at 19 percent.
Hispanics are disproportionately affected by HIV, Wolitski said. “Hispanics represent 18 percent of new HIV infections while representing 15 percent of the total U.S. population,” he said. “Men make up 76 percent of new infections among Hispanics, the majority of whom were men who have sex with men.”
Tags: centers for disease control and prevention, hiv aids, kevin frost, men of color, mental health centers, sex with men, twenty five years