Despite great strides in HIV prevention, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to evolve and grow, challenging researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to adapt to its changing face. One key challenge is that the populations who most need prevention interventions continue to shift.

While men who have sex with men (MSM) remains the largest exposure group in the United States, racial and ethnic minorities (especially people of color) represent the majority of new HIV infections, the majority of Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and the majority of deaths among HIV+ people in the U.S. (1,2,3). For example, although African Americans and Latinos represent 12% and 14% of the U.S. population respectively, together they accounted for about 70% of new AIDS diagnoses in 2001 (4). Additionally, by the end of the 20th Century, the number of non-Hispanic African Americans living with AIDS exceeded that of non-Hispanic whites living with AIDS (5).

 

More and more heterosexual adults in the United States are getting HIV through unprotected sex. This increase is especially notable among women, among whom more than half of new HIV infections reported in 2002 were from heterosexual exposure (8). Among men and women, African-American women accounted for half of all HIV infections acquired through heterosexual sex from 1999 to 2002 (9).

References:
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HIV prevalence trends in selected populations in the United States: Results from national serosurveillance, 1993-1997. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States, 2002. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2002, 14: Table 5, 2003.

3. Kaiser Family Foundation. HIV/AIDS policy fact sheet: The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, 2004. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004. Retrieved March 16, 2004 from http://www.kff.org/hivaids/3029-03.cfm.

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Advancing HIV prevention: New strategies for a changing epidemic–United States, 2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 52(15):329-332, 2003.

5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Estimated number of persons living with AIDS by race/ethnicity, 1993-2001, United States. Slide 5of 23, CDC AIDS Surveillance- Trends Slide Set L178. Retrieved on February 18, 2004 from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/graphics/images/l178/l178-5.htm.

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 1986.

7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2003c). Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States, 2002. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2002, 14: Table 16, 2003.

8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States, 2002. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2002, 14: Table 1, 2003.

9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States, 2002. HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 2002, 14: Tables A2 and A4, 2003.

10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Estimated number of persons living with AIDS by sex, 1993-2001, United States. Slide 5of 23, CDC AIDS Surveillance- Trends Slide Set L178. Retrieved on February 18, 2004 from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/graphics/images/l178/l178-5.htm.

© Sociometrics Corporation, 2004