The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that in the United States, HIV is affecting African-Americans with "alarming" ferocity and the epidemic is far worse than thought to be earlier. In a detailed study carried out of people in the United States infected with HIV, the CDC report says a majority of the new cases occur among gay and bisexual men and that blacks are most at risk.

Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS said, "The number of new HIV infections among young black men who have sex with men is alarming." He added that the study results were “as a powerful reminder that the U.S. epidemic of H.I.V. disease is far from over.”

In 2006 the study found that 56,300 people had recently contracted HIV, this was 40% more than the agency’s earlier estimates of 40,000 new cases every year. New technology was used in the study that allowed the researchers to distinguish between the old and new infections.

In the hope that the details of the age, race and other characteristics of the people who were recently infected could help direct the prevention efforts in a more focused way the agency released its data. “The data really confirm what we had suspected and known before,” said Dr. Fenton. He further added that the disease had a “disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men and on blacks and Latinos.”

The study pointed out the difference in the age band when blacks and whites tend to get infected. White gay and bisexual men tend to get infected when they are in their 30’s and 40’s while black gay and bisexual men were more likely to get infected when they were in  their teens or early 20’s. Black people who constitute 12 % of the population accounted for more than 45 % of the recent infections with black women 15 times as likely to be infected with HIV and Hispanic women 4 times as compared to a white woman. Black men are six times as likely as a white man to get HIV and three times as likely as a Hispanic man.

One reason for these figures was that black men were found to be more likely to be drug users and to engage in risky sex as compared to white men.                                                            

"To end the HIV epidemic in the U.S., we must reverse years of increases in HIV incidence among men who have sex with men," Fenton said. "We must ensure HIV infection does not become a right of passage for gay and bisexual men. We must reach each generation early in their lives. At same time, we must develop strategies to keep older age groups HIV-free for life."

Richard Wolitski, PhD, acting director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS prevention said, "A range of issues contributes to disproportionate HIV risk for African-Americans, such as poverty, stigma, lack of access to health care, and higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. Black women face additional challenges such as power imbalances in sexual relationships with men. This may affect their ability to protect themselves by measures such as using condoms."

The new CDC report appears in the Sept. 12 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and researchers have said that more studies are needed to explain why young black men are at such a high risk to contract the disease.

Dr. Wolitski feels it could be due to the fact that young black men are more likely to have been incarcerated and studies have shown that their behavior outside of the prison could result in the infection rates being high.  Another factor could be that the black gay and bisexual men’s partners were older than their white counterparts and thus were more likely to have already been infected.

Fenton said to increase HIV testing rates among gay and bisexual men the CDC would soon launch a national campaign. Work to expand existing HIV prevention programs, especially for African-American men who have sex with men is also on by the CDC. As 80% of gay men in a recent survey had not been reached in the last year by the kinds of intensive, ongoing programs needed for effective HIV prevention those programs are sorely needed felt Fenton.