STUDY: New HIV Infections Drop In All US Groups Except Young Gay & Bisexual Men

According to an AMA study published this weekend, over the last decade new HIV infections have dropped by one-third. The decline was seen in all demographics except young gay and bisexual men.

The study is based on HIV diagnoses from all 50 states’ health departments, which get test results from doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals and laboratories. The data span a decade, making this a larger and longer look at these trends than any previous study, said another study author, Amy Lansky of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings: 16 out of every 100,000 people ages 13 and older were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2011, a steady decline from 24 out of 100,000 people in 2002. Declines were seen in the rates for men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection drug users and most age groups. The only group in which diagnoses increased was gay and bisexual men, the study found. The diagnosis rate is a direct measure of when people actually tested positive for the virus. The diagnoses may be identifying infections that happened recently or years before.

According to the CDC, only 45% of American adults have ever been tested for HIV.