The HIV epidemic in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is much worse than was previously known. The CDC announced in a report released at the 17th International AIDS Conference currently being held in Mexico City that the incidence of HIV infected cases in the U.S. was closer to 56,300 per year rather than the 40,000 that was previously reported. According to the report the increased numbers is the result of the use of a new statistical tool that is more accurate in determining when a new HIV infection actually occurs, rather than when it is diagnosed.

The revised figure is an indication that HIV infections in the US has increased by 41 percent for the 15-year period since 1991. The new data also indicates that HIV cases in Florida were revised from 4,550 per annum to 6,000. According to reports, a pioneering AIDS researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Margaret Fischi, said that experts have suspected for some time that the HIV epidemic in the US was worse than was being reported.

According to the CDC report, the HIV epidemic is worst among young people in the 18- 29 age group (34 percent) declining significantly to 10 percent in people aged over 50.  The infection is highest among Blacks (45 percent) compared to 35 percent for whites and 17 percent for Hispanics. While only 27 percent of women have contacted the disease, the report indicate that it has infected 73 percent of men, with the transmission of HIV highest among homosexual men (53 percent), with 31 percent of HIV cases relating to heterosexuals.

Julie Davids of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project in Chicago has called for a national AIDS strategy, while Phill Wilson, founder of the Black Aids Institute in Los Angeles is reported as saying that the domestic epidemic has been ignored resulting in suffering to Black people in particular. He has called for an annual expenditure of $1.3 billion on HIV prevention.

In recent years the U.S. government has significantly increased its funding of the global fight against AIDS – from $2.3 billion in 2004 to $6 billion this year, and has committed to a five year budget of $48 billion. Funding for the domestic HIV prevention program is $660 million, but with these new statistics more funding is going to be needed. The CDC is currently working on HIV prevention program for the US to be implemented between 2010 and 2020.

Help for the Caribbean and Latin America

Meanwhile at the Mexico City conference UNAIDS reported that an estimated 33.6 million people are living with HIV worldwide. About 1.6 million are in Latin America and the Caribbean. HIV prevalence in the Caribbean is 1% and continues to be the second most affected region in the world after Sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS remains one of the leading causes of death among young people in the Caribbean. An estimated 11,000 people in the Caribbean region died from AIDS in 2007, and approximately 17,000 new HIV infections were reported in 2007, mainly through heterosexual sex, while sex between men is also determined to be an important factor.


However, help is on the way for Latin America and the Caribbean from the Red Cross’ HIV Global Alliance. The Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched this program on August 1, 2008, just before the opening of Mexico City AIDS conference. This initiative aims to raise some US$22.4 million to escalate HIV/AIDS programs in the region. According to reports the initiative will start with 10 countries: Argentina, Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica and will expand to more countries in the Americas in future years.



The program will continue to build on and strengthen existing partnerships with National HIV/AIDS Response Programs in the 10 countries, with a special focus on vulnerable groups including, Men who have sex with Men (MSMs), Children Orphaned and made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (OVCs), prisoners, and special groups such as members of the military.