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In a shocking new report, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find that almost half of all black men, a quarter of Latino men and 1/11 white gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV in America.
Men who have sex with men continue to be the most at-risk group in the country. Analysis also shows that hundreds of thousands of people will be diagnosed over the next few years if current rates persist.
Drawing on data from 2009 through 2013, the researchers calculated lifetime risk of HIV diagnosis for people from various social groups. Among the results, they were able to calculate risk based on gender, location, ethnicity and race.
The average risk of diagnosis is 1 in 99, which is down from the 2004-5 average of 1 in 78. However, despite the reduction in overall diagnoses across the country, rates of infection remain high within the LGBT community.
At the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston on 23 February, the report also revealed that the highest risk locations for contracting HIV include Washington, DC (1 in 13), Maryland (1 in 49), Georgia (1 in 51), Florida (1 in 54) and Louisiana (1 in 56).
Overlooking sexuality, black people of African-American descent remain the most affected racial or ethnic group with a lifetime HIV risk of 1 in 20 for men and 1 in 48 for women. LGBT black people are, as a result, the most at-risk group.
Those who inject or ‘slam’ drugs are at a much higher lifetime risk than the general population – and this increases among women who inject, rather than men (1 in 23 compared to 1 in 36).
