WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is calling out a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claiming a stall in a five-year decline in HIV incidence in the U.S. Advocates with AHF believe a relative stasis in the number of new HIV infections actually goes back decades—and requires stepped up action on prevention and treatment.
According to POZ Magazine, “…during the period analyzed in this new (CDC) report—2010 to 2016—HIV incidence decreased by only about 5 percent, from an estimated 41,100 new cases in 2010 to 38,900 cases in 2013. The rate then remained essentially constant for the subsequent three years, such that the nation saw an estimated 38,700 is transmissions in 2016.”
“After this report was issued by the CDC earlier today, POZ Magazine correctly noted, ‘The true stark decline in the U.S. infection rate occurred between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s’,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AHF. “As for CDC’s claim of a stall in a five-year decline in HIV cases? As far back as 1992 there were 40,000 new HIV infections followed by similar case numbers reported between 2004 and 2007. The stagnation that CDC reports today is really and sadly a relative static record of HIV incidence for almost three decades.”
Toward that end, AHF notes that previous CDC reports suggest that the stasis in new infections in the U.S. goes back decades: A CDC article from 2001 in its weekly MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) noted, “As a result of these and other HIV prevention efforts and increases in societal awareness of and response to the AIDS epidemic, new infections in the United States, which had risen rapidly to a peak of 150,000 per year in the mid-1980s, declined to an estimated 40,000 per year since 1992. With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s, the number of new AIDS cases and deaths declined dramatically and then stabilized in the United States and several other industrialized nations.” (emphasis added)
In addition, a CDC HIV Surveillance report from 2007 includes a table (p.#12) that shows estimated HIV/AIDS cases by year of diagnosis from 2004-2007. At that time, CDC had 34 states and five (5) US dependent areas reporting.
- 2004: 38,398 (new HIV cases reported by CDC)
- 2005: 38,032
- 2006: 38,531
- 2007: 44,084
As the CDC report (and accompanying press release) and POZ Magazine both reported today, there were 38,700 HIV cases diagnosed in 2016.
AIDS advocates credit much of the actual dramatic decline in HIV incidence in the 1980s and 1990s—a time before lifesaving antiretroviral treatments were available—to three main factors: aggressive safer sex education promoted and conducted by and for affected communities; reduction in the number of sex partners and heavy promotion and use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission or acquisition.
“While we believe the claims CDC makes of a stall in the decline in new HIV cases is deceitful and disingenuous, the flatline number of new cases over the last nearly three decades—roughly 40,000 annually—indicate that we must all get back to basics and proactively step up our prevention and treatment efforts to really bring these numbers down,” added Weinstein.
In January, AHF applauded President Trump’s State of the Union commitment to fight HIV/AIDS and eliminate new HIV infections in the U.S. within a decade and said that it stood ready to partner in the effort. (Politico 2/06/19).
HHS Plan: (“Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America” HHS Secretary Alex Azar, 2/05/19)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over one million people in 43 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.
