By Terry Vanderheyden
WASHINGTON, November 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the rates for new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have been on the decline among heterosexuals and intravenous drug users, US health officials are expressing alarm at an eight percent increase in HIV rates in homosexual and bisexual men in one year.
Measuring the increase in prevalence of the virus from 2003 to 2004, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the 8% rise in cases among men who commit sodomy with men, “was statistically significant” for the 33 states that reported on HIV cases, according to the CDC’s publication, Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.
In addition, the CDC reported that the majority of HIV infections in women were a result of what the organization terms “high risk” sexual behaviour, which includes sex with bisexual men, while an estimated 25% of persons living with HIV do not know they are infected.
The CDC cautioned that the increasing HIV rate may be a true reflection of increases in the disease, particularly as the transmission rates are heightened by concurrent infections with sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis – which is also skyrocketing among homosexual men – but “might also reflect increases in HIV testing among [men who have sex with men].” Statistics Canada revealed last year that the rate of syphilis among homosexual men had almost doubled between 2002 and 2003. According to the CDC, people with syphilis are two to five times more likely to transmit or contract HIV than individuals not infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
The CDC also warned that a survey of 15-29-year-old men who engaged in sodomy “reported that the proportion of unrecognized HIV infection was as high as 77%.”
The CDC estimated that, in the 33 US states that reported on HIV incidence, 157,252 persons were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS between 2001 and 2004, 71% of whom were male. The CDC also noted that the majority of men who contracted the disease were affected through the act of sodomy, 17% through “high-risk” heterosexual contact, and 16% through injection-drug use.
See the CDC’s report:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5445a1.htm
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
STD Explosion: HIV, Syphilis Rates Up by 50% in Toronto Homosexual Community
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04061609.html