According to estimates released Wednesday by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City has a HIV infection rate which is three times the national rate.

The Big Apple has an incidence of 72 new infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally. These findings are based on new lab technology and a recently derived statistical code by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention giving the most precise estimate the city had ever offered.

As the methodology used was new, it could not be definitively stated whether the numbers had decreased or increased as compared to previous years. The lab methodology used gives health officials information on whether those with HIV contracted the virus within the past five months while the statistical model enables them to make projections about a population’s infection rate.

Health Commissioner Thomas Freidan said in a written statement, "The populations that bear the greatest burden nationally -- blacks, for example, and men who have sex with men -- are highly represented in New York City. Because HIV is more prevalent within those groups, the risk of HIV infection per sexual contact is higher."

HIV or the human immunodeficiency virus is what causes AIDS. In June the city had initiated a three year program to administer HIV tests to 250,000 Bronx adults who had not previously been tested after a study was released which said the city had a high rate of "unsafe sexual behavior."

The study showed that 36 % of gay and bisexual men in the city who had five or more partners in the previous year did not use condoms regularly. "This is a core group which is at high risk for getting and spreading HIV," Freidan said.

Some of the study’s other findings were that men accounted for 76 % of the recent HIV infections and women for 25 %. Out of the recently infected people Blacks constituted 46 %, Hispanics 32 % and whites 21 %. Recent infections also saw sex between men as the main reason for 50 % of the cases, high risk heterosexual men came in at 22 %, intravenous drug use 8 % while 18 % were from unknown causes.

Manhattan had the majority of the new infection rate with 35 % Brooklyn 26 %, Bronx 19 % and Queens came in at 17 %.  Whites within New York City were infected at four times the national rate, Hispanics at three times the national rate, and blacks at almost twice the national rate. Almost two thirds of the recent infections occurred in people in the age group of 30-50 years. Across the country people less than 30 years accounted for 41 % of the recent infections while in New York it was 28 %.  

The Health Department in a statement said, “The analytic technique is new, and the estimates may be imprecise, but even a rough gauge of H.I.V. incidence is a valuable tool for understanding — and combating — the spread of H.I.V. The health department’s new estimate includes 2006 incidence figures for different age groups, racial groups and both genders. By repeating the exercise for subsequent years, researchers may be able to discern increases and decreases over time, and target their prevention efforts accordingly.”