is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure that candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS and that voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

US HIV infections 50% higher than previously thought

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113002535.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR Estimate of AIDS Cases In U.S. Rises New Test Places the Rate Of Infection 50 Percent Higher By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 1, 2007; A01 New government estimates of the number of Americans who become infected with the AIDS virus each year are 50 percent higher than previous calculations suggested, sources said yesterday. For more than a decade, epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and 60,000. The higher estimate is the product of a new method of testing blood samples that can identify those who were infected within the previous five months. With a way to distinguish recent infections from long-standing ones, epidemiologists can then estimate how many new infections are appearing nationwide each month or year. The higher estimate is based on data from 19 states and large cities that have been extrapolated to the nation as a whole. The CDC has not announced the new estimate, but two people in direct contact with the scientists preparing it confirmed it… (more)