200,000 Americans or more have HIV and don’t know it
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The number of adults tested for HIV reached a record high in 2009, according to an analysis of national survey data released today in a CDC Vital Signs report. Last year 82.9 million adults between 18 and 64 reported having been tested for HIV.
This number represents an increase
of 11.4 million people since 2006, when CDC recommended that HIV testing
become a routine part of medical care for adults and adolescents, and
that people at high risk of infection be tested at least once a year.
Despite this progress, 55 percent of adults – and 28.3 percent of adults
with a risk factor for HIV – have not been tested.
“Today’s news shows that we have had progress increasing testing, and
that more progress is both necessary and possible,” said Thomas R.
Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., CDC director. “With most adults and with nearly a
third of high-risk people having never been tested for HIV, we need to
do more to ensure that all Americans have access to voluntary, routine
and early HIV testing in order to save lives and reduce the spread of
this terrible disease.”
The December Vital Signs report indicates that the percentage of adults
who had been tested at least once in their lives increased to 45 percent
in 2009, after holding steady at approximately 40 percent from 2001 to
2006.
CDC estimates that 1.1 million adults are living with HIV and that as
many as one in five of these individuals (approximately 200,000
Americans) does not know that they are infected. Reducing the number of
undiagnosed infections is a critical component of HIV prevention, as
most sexually transmitted HIV infections in the United States are
transmitted by people who are unaware of their infection. Research
shows that once people learn they are infected, most take steps to
protect their partners. Furthermore, people who are diagnosed earlier
have longer life expectancies because they can benefit from HIV care and
treatment.
The Vital Signs report also highlights surveillance data showing that
many people with HIV are diagnosed too late in their infection to take
full advantage of effective treatment options and protect their partners
from infection. In the 37 states with long-standing, confidential,
name-based HIV reporting systems, 32 percent of people diagnosed with
HIV in 2007 progressed to AIDS within 12 months, indicating a late
diagnosis and missed opportunities for treatment.
CDC is working with health care providers and state and local public
health agencies to continue increasing access to routine HIV testing
during medical visits, while also expanding community-based HIV testing
programs that reach people outside of health care settings.
This summer, the White House announced the National HIV/AIDS Strategy,
which includes the goal of increasing the proportion of HIV-infected
individuals who are aware of their HIV status to 90 percent. Consistent
with this goal, in 2010 CDC provided $60 million to support HIV testing
efforts in 30 of America’s jurisdictions most heavily impacted by HIV.
The funding allows CDC and its partners to expand a successful
three-year initiative to increase access to HIV testing among
African-Americans, Latinos, men who have sex with men, and injection
drug users.
For more information on HIV testing and prevention, visit
www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns or www.cdc.gov/hiv.
About Vital Signs
CDC Vital Signs is a new report that appears on the first Tuesday of the
month as part of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
(MMWR). Vital Signs is designed to provide the latest data and
information on key health indicators – cancer prevention, obesity,
tobacco use, alcohol use, access to health care, HIV/AIDS, motor vehicle
passenger safety, health care-associated infections, cardiovascular
health, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, asthma and food safety.
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