Colorado AIDS Project | Compassion Action Prevention
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Colorado AIDS Project will not be providing testing on Thursday, August 28, 2008 due to road closures for the DNC. |
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The current AIDS epidemic in the United States is about 40 percent worse than the government has reported, a new study released here on Saturday shows.
The conclusion is based on the study’s use of a new laboratory test to directly measure the annual incidence of new infections with H.I.V., the AIDS virus, in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted the study, which found that 56,300 people became newly H.I.V.-infected in 2006 compared to the 40,000 figure that the Atlanta-based agency has long cited as the annual incidence of the disease. A separate historical trend analysis published as part of the study suggests that the number of new infections was likely never as low as the earlier estimate of 40,000 and has been roughly stable overall since the late 1990s. C.D.C. officials said that the revised figure does not necessarily represent an actual increase in the number of new infections but reflects an ability to more precisely measure H.I.V. incidence and secure a better understanding of the epidemic. |
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AIDS Among Latinos on RiseHispanics in U.S. Face Unique Obstacles to Diagnosis, Treatment |
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AIDS rates in the nation's Latino community are increasing and, with little notice, have reached what experts are calling a simmering public health crisis. Though Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Hispanics in the District have the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country. So far, the toll of AIDS in the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority population has mostly been overshadowed by the epidemic among African Americans and gay white men. Yet in major U.S. cities, as many as 1 in 4 gay Hispanic men has HIV, a rate on par with sub-Saharan Africa. Blacks still have the highest HIV rates in the country, but language difficulties, cultural barriers and, in many cases, issues of legal status make the threat in the Hispanic community unique. For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment. |
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HIV Rates Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in the U.S. Are on the Rise, CDC Report Finds |
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The number of new HIV diagnoses recorded between 2001 and 2006 among men who have sex with men (MSM) ages 13 to 24 increased by 12.4% annually, according to a study published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Some experts said the findings are an "ominous ... indicator" that the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to flourish among MSM.
For the study, CDC analyzed data from 33 states but did not include statistics from states with large minority and MSM populations, including California, Illinois and Georgia. The study found that of the 214,379 HIV diagnoses recorded during the study period, 46% were among MSM. Although the rate of new diagnoses increased for MSM, it declined in all other transmission categories, including injection drug use and high-risk heterosexual contact. Among all MSM, the estimated annual percentage change was 1.5%, according to the study. Among MSM ages 25 to 44, the rate of new diagnoses declined by 1%. In addition, among MSM ages 45 and older, the rate increased by 3%, the study found. Among MSM ages 13 to 24, the annual increase was 8% among Hispanics, 9% among whites and 15% among blacks. The increase among young MSM is about 10 times higher than the overall MSM community. |
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Some people have a mutation that makes them amazingly resistant to HIV -- and now, scientists may have found a way to give that immunity to anyone. Viruses enter cells and take them over, but to get inside, they need a handhold. HIV pulls itself in by grabbing onto a protein called CCR5, which decorates the surface of T-cells, which are one of the two major types of white blood cells and play an important role in helping the body fight infections. Back in the 1990's, researchers took interest in a handful of promiscuous gay men who were able to engage in sexual relations with their HIV-positive partners with impunity. Most of them had a mutation that kept their cells from producing normal CCR5 protein. Click here to read the complete story on Wired {Image: A zinc finger nuclease clips the CCR5 gene out of a T-cell. Courtesy Sangamo Biosciences and Wired Magazine} |
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