New blood test allows for more accurate numbers Until recently, AIDS prevention in the U.S. wasn’t a topic that was considered headline news. Thought more as an issue of the 1980s and 1990s, the lack of publicity has meant out of sight and out of mind for many Americans. However, updated data from the federal government should change this point of view. [caption id="attachment_746" align="alignright" width="199" caption="An HIV/AIDS test. Courtesy of Avoir Chaud on Flickr Creative Commons"] The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement that its estimate of the HIV positive population in the United States is about 40% off. The CDC initially calculated that about 40,000 people are infected with HIV each year. However, a new and more accurate blood test has raised this number to 56,000. The CDC says the error was based on limited data and inaccurate methods. The Center is now using blood tests that can tell how recently an HIV infection has occurred. A diagnosis of HIV can occur years after the actual infection. But this new blood test indicates whether someone has been infected within a range of five months. Of the approximately 1 million people in the United States living with HIV, about one fourth of them are unaware that they have the disease. Infections are decreasing among heterosexuals and drug users, but they continue to increase in gay and bisexual men. As I mentioned in a recent post on African Americans and AIDS, blacks account for about 45% of new HIV infections in the United States. The AIDS think tank, the Black AIDS Institute, recently released a study stating that the AIDS epidemic among African Americans in some parts of the United States is worse than some parts of Africa. A major part of AIDS prevention is education. By getting tested and being aware of the ways to avoid the risks of getting HIV, we can cut the number of new infections significantly. The United States needs a plan that includes education, treatment and care in order to make any headway in this issue. For more information, please visit these sources: |
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