Three out of every 10 gay or bisexual men in
several cities in the U.S. South have been diagnosed with the AIDS
virus, three times the national rate, according to a study about how
common HIV infections are in metro areas.
The study echoes other research that reported
higher rates of HIV diagnoses in the South, in urban areas, and in gay
and bisexual men, but it is the first to look at how common HIV
diagnoses are in these men by city.
A
health educator puts a bandage on a man's finger after taking blood for
an HIV test at the Whitman-Walker Health Elizabeth Taylor Medical
Center Sept. 27, 2012 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file
"For the first time, we can see not only the
numbers, but the proportions," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report found 21 of the 25 metro areas with
the highest levels of HIV diagnosis in gay and bisexual men were in the
South. HIV was diagnosed in about 3 in 10 gay and bisexual men in El
Paso, Texas; Augusta, Georgia; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In Jackson,
Mississippi, the rate was 4 in 10, the highest in the nation.
According to the report, about 11 percent of gay
and bisexual men had been diagnosed living with an HIV infection
nationwide during the time covered by the study. Related: Gay, Bisexual Black Men have 50 Percent Risk of HIV
Emory University researchers produced the new
numbers using national counts of HIV diagnoses in different communities.
Lacking good census counts of sexually active gay and bisexual men,
they used data from previous studies to calculate how many men had sex
with other men.
In its look at metro areas, the study counts
only those who have tested positive for HIV. Because many HIV cases are
not diagnosed, those numbers don't reflect how common HIV infections
really are in each area. It's also not clear what factors may vary from
city to city that might explain differing rates.
Still, while the largest total numbers of gay
and bisexual cases are in large cities like New York and Los Angeles,
this research gives a better understanding that the chance of
encountering an infected gay or bisexual man is far greater in some
smaller communities, some experts said.
The research was released Tuesday through an
obscure publication, the Journal of Medical Internet Research. CDC
officials described the work as important and useful in deciding how to
target HIV prevention funds
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