CDC: HIV+ Out of Care Responsible for 91% of New Infections, says AHF

Officials from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today expressed concern over a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article reporting results of a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study that found over 90% of new HIV infections identified in the U.S. were attributed to, or passed on from HIV-positive individuals who were not in medical care or treatment. According to an AIDS.gov blog post, the CDC study, first published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday, February 23, “…estimates that 91.5 percent of new HIV infections in 2009 were attributable to people with HIV who were not in medical care, including those who didn’t know they were infected. In comparison, less than six percent of new infections could be attributed to people with HIV who were in care and receiving antiretroviral therapy.”

“We were not surprised that this CDC study found a significant portion of new HIV infections arose from HIV-positive individuals who were not in care or may not even have known their HIV status; however, we were shocked to see that the number was as high as it is—nine out of ten new HIV infections in 2009 occurred this way—over 91.5%,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President. “Such off-the-charts numbers suggest that HIV/AIDS resources, funding and energies must be directed toward far more aggressive and proactive HIV testing, linkage to medical care and antiretroviral treatment for those already infected rather than to the more expensive and esoteric HIV prevention methods such as PrEP. We’ve known for over four years that ‘treatment as prevention’ works. Until this study, we just didn’t know how great the need was for us to fully deploy ‘treatment as prevention’ to get as many HIV-positive individuals in care and on treatment as possible in order to break the chain of infection.”

In his blog post on the AIDS.gov website, Eugene McCray, M.D., Director, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC, said of the study: “These findings are a signal of the unprecedented opportunity we have to reduce HIV infections in America. But more than that, they are a call to action: for all of us to work toward a time in which every person with HIV knows of their infection and receives the care they need. If we can get anywhere close to that vision, we can dramatically reduce HIV infections in this country and ultimately help bring an end to HIV in the United States.”

The CDC also released an accompanying 60-second video outlining the study result and the importance of getting people into treatment. To view the video, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj48fpiUG8E

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 383,000 individuals in 36 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.