According to the
results of a new study released at the international
AIDS conference in Toronto on Thursday, HIV prevalence is
set to skyrocket among Western gay men as they age.
The University of Pittsburgh report, a review of
papers published in journals, indicates that the
number of new cases of HIV has been rising by about
1.9% each year since 2001, which means that as gay men
as a group get older, more and more of them will
become HIV-positive, Agence-France Presse reports.
"Ongoing incidence rates at this level will
yield very high HIV prevalence rates within each
generation of gay men," University of Pittsburgh
researcher Ron Stall told AFP.
Although only one
in 12 gay men at age 20 were infected with HIV in
North America and Europe in 2001, Stall and other
researchers project that the rate could rise to one in
four by the time they turn 30. At age 60, the
projections suggest that 58% of the men could be infected.
The numbers are more dire for gay men of color:
4% of them between the ages of 15 and 22 are currently
infected, while 15% between the ages of 23 and 29 are
infected. At an average annual rate of increase in new
infections of 4%, three quarters of black gay men in the
latter age category will be infected with HIV at age 50.
"It's not a new story; it has been repeated time
and again in the literature in the past...an almost
unbelievable incidence rate," Stall said to AFP.
"African-American men who have sex with men suffer
among the highest HIV prevalence rates of any risk group in
the world."
The report's findings only underscore the need
for better ways of preventing HIV infection, instead
of just treating its effects. "HIV is still an
incurable disease," Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of
the National Center for HIV at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, told AFP. "In the United
States, 5% [of the budget for HIV] is spent on prevention."
He added: "America is more interested on
treating this disease than preventing it. We can't
treat our way out of this epidemic, even as a rich
country." (The Advocate)
