Gay Today: Health

AIDS Infections are No Longer in Decline

By Jack Nichols

actup1.jpg - 13.49 K AIDS protests, like this one by ACT UP in New York in 1997, may become more common again as AIDS infection rates inch upward again.
Photo: ACT UP-New York A sharp rebuke to 'sex-without-condoms' propagandists has surfaced in studies showing that HIV infections in the United States are no longer in decline but have stabilized at a rate of approximately 40,000 new infections per year.

Even death rates, which had dropped 42 percent between 1996 and 1997, declined only 20 percent between 1997 and 1998, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

In New York City, declines in death rates between 1996-97 were 63 percent, but 1998 death statistics show only a startling 25% decline.

Those battling AIDS, according to specialists, must once again hoist banners on their front lines, advertising impassioned appeals for prevention.

Many fear that the arrival of life-prolonging protease inhibitors have resulted in a general complacency, and that a new generation has no prerequisite consciousness of those horrors that—only a short time ago—were visited on men and women of every age and race.

In some locales the new infections are being called "dangerously high" among young gay males, heterosexual women, and members of other minorities including African-Americans and Hispanics. Studies also revealed that persons with other sexually-transmitted diseases were among those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

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Dr. Helene Gayle, director of the AIDS program for the CDC, said: "In this era of better therapies, it is clear that people are becoming complacent about prevention."

An ethnic/ racial breakdown of 28,000 estimated new cases among men shows 50% are among African-Americans, 30% among whites and 20% among Hispanics. In a study of 12,000 women, African-American infections are 64 percent of the total, while white and Hispanic women each account for 18 percent.

Bisexual relations, according to studies conducted in Manhattan's gay bars, are highest among African-American males (20%) who reported having sex with both males and females. Bisexual Hispanics numbered 12 percent, while white bisexual males trailed at 4 percent.

A similar study by the Michigan Department of Community Health suggests that bisexual practices among African-American males is leading to an increase of infections among black women. In America's black communities, AIDS continues to be perceived, in spite of rising death rates, as affecting only white gay males.

actup3.jpg - 16.92 K ACT UP New York holds a political funeral for AIDS activist Steve Michael
Photo: ACT UP-New York New tracking techniques—blood tests used to estimate the numbers of recent infections are currently being introduced. Standards tests—which detect infection-fighting antibodies, do not give evidence of when an infection took place. But a second test—if it shows negative results in the face of a standard test's positive reading, indicates that an individual has been infected within the past six months. If both tests show positive results, the likelihood is that an infection occurred prior to six months ago.

Dr. Linda Valleroy, in a six city study, found "alarming" rates of HIV infections in 3,492 gay males aged 15 to 22 years.

"Prevention," says the CDC's Dr. Gayle, "perhaps is more important than ever, and we need to elevate its importance."