The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to announce a dramatic increase in the annual number of HIV infections occurring in the USA, an article in the Washington Blade has claimed.
Current CDC literature states that around 40,000 people become infected with HIV every year, a rate that has remained stable since 1992. However, sources at the CDC have told the Washington Blade that the actual figure may now be over 60,000.
It is unclear exactly what has caused the increase, and the CDC is officially remaining tight-lipped on the subject. Greater HIV testing in a wider range of venues, a CDC initiative introduced last year, may be one explanation. Two employees of the agency have also suggested that more accurate reporting techniques recently introduced across the US may have contributed to the rise. If this were the case, it would suggest that annual incidence may have been underreported for some years.
“My view is it’s both better data collection and increased testing as well as a higher rate of [HIV] conversion that is causing the spike in the CDC numbers,” said David Reznik, the head of an HIV dental clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, and former member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
“However, our prevention messages aren’t reaching those at most risk,” Reznik said. “And I believe it’s time to rethink our prevention strategy.”
Government prevention efforts in the USA mainly consist of encouraging greater HIV testing, and there is currently no national scheme to encourage safer sex. If the new statistics are accurate, it is likely that many AIDS organisations will call for a reappraisal of this situation.
The CDC has admitted it is unlikely it will publish the new data, or its annual HIV/AIDS surveillance report, before World AIDS Day this year, stating that it needs more time to subject the data to peer review. Such a move has however drawn accusations of an attempted cover-up.
“The word we’re hearing now is they’re leaning against releasing such bad news on World AIDS Day,” said Jim Driscoll, a Washington adviser to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “There’s some talk of them releasing the new figures during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when the fewest possible people will be paying attention.”
While a quiet launch of the figures may cause less embarrassment for the CDC, it would represent a major missed opportunity to highlight the ongoing seriousness of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
To find out more about AIDS in the USA, please visit our HIV & AIDS in America section.
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