New York Data Reveals Worrying HIV Trend in Women

Women now account for more than a third of new HIV diagnoses in New York City, according to a study released on Wednesday that appears to confirm a slight gender-based shift in the U.S. AIDS epidemic.

Women now account for more than a third of new HIV diagnoses in New York City, according to a study released on Wednesday that appears to confirm a slight gender-based shift in the U.S. AIDS epidemic. Since first being diagnosed in 1981, AIDS has killed nearly half a million Americans, most of them believed to be homosexuals and intravenous drug users. But in recent years an increasing number of people outside these high-risk groups have been testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Data collected by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 35 percent of the 6,662 new HIV cases reported in the nation’s most populous city in 2001 occurred in women. In comparison, 28 percent of AIDS sufferers diagnosed with HIV in the city before 2001 were female, according to the study, which was the first analysis of annual HIV diagnosis data collected as a result of a 2000 state law requiring health-care workers to report the names of newly diagnosed HIV or AIDS patients. Dr. Susan Manning, a CDC epidemiologist and a co-author of the study, said the findings provided an opportunity to improve HIV prevention programs so that they target everyone at the highest risk of getting infected. “Although we should continue to focus on the groups that have the highest rates of diagnoses — males and non-Hispanic blacks — we also should focus our prevention efforts more toward women and younger people,” Manning said. She noted that New York City’s HIV epidemic remained centered among men, non-Hispanic blacks and people between the ages of 25 and 44. Blacks accounted for about 54 percent of new HIV diagnoses in New York City in 2001. The new study comes amid fears of a resurgence of HIV in the United States. In the past year, health officials have warned of a rise in HIV infections among blacks and intravenous drug users. There have also been a number of syphilis outbreaks among gay and bisexual men. Studies have shown that sexually transmitted diseases increase the likelihood of HIV infection. The trends prompted the CDC earlier this year to recommend that routine HIV testing be expanded to include pregnant women, intravenous drug users and anyone who engaged in unsafe sex. An estimated 16,000 Americans die each year from AIDS and another 40,000 become infected with HIV.(Source: Reuterws Health News: January 2004)