Continued efforts needed to reduce HIV/AIDS cases, mortality in US

CDC. MMWR. 2011;60:689-693.

Issue: July 2011

Despite significant decreases in the rates for HIV/AIDS during the past 30 years, CDC officials reported 1,178,350 people were living with HIV in 2008 — including 20.1% undiagnosed infections, according to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Lucia V. Torian, PhD, of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and colleagues pooled data from the National HIV Surveillance System between 1981 and 2008 to assess US trends in HIV/AIDS infections.

New AIDS diagnoses and deaths were significantly increased among those aged 13 years and older during the first 14 years of the epidemic: 75,457 cases during 1992 and 50,628 during 1995.

Introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy led to significant decreases in AIDS diagnoses and mortality between 1995 and 1998. The decrease remained stable from 1999 to 2008, averaging 38,279 yearly diagnoses and 17,489 deaths from AIDS during this time, according to the report.

Despite this, approximately 1,178,350 people aged 13 years and older were living with HIV by the end of 2008, with 20.1% undiagnosed infections. Seventy-five percent of those living with HIV were male; 65.7% were men who have sex with men.

Compared with the prevalence of whites living with HIV (238 cases per 100,000 population), the prevalence of HIV was 1,819 among blacks and 593 among Hispanics. The rate for undiagnosed HIV was greatest among those aged 13 to 24 years (58.9%), followed by those aged 25 to 34 years (31.5%).

“To achieve the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, HIV prevention, care and treatment programs must continue their efforts to reduce incidence, increase access to care, improve health outcomes among persons living with HIV, and reduce HIV-related health disparities,” the researchers wrote in the report.

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