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World AIDS Day marks its 20th anniversary Dec. 1. Let’s take the opportunity to look at updated HIV/AIDS data because the numbers are sobering.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its HIV/AIDS statistics this summer. New data from 2006 show 40 percent more HIV infections than previously thought, bringing the total to 56,300 new cases each year. In New York State, that number is 6,200.
In New York City, more than 100,000 people live with HIV, but one in five doesn’t know he or she is infected. The city’s department of health offers these HIV infection ratios:
• 1 in 70 New Yorkers is infected with HIV
• 1 in 40 African Americans is positive
• 1 in 25 men living in Manhattan
• 1 in 12 black men ages 40–49
• 1 in 10 men who have sex with men
• 1 in 8 injection drug users
• 1 in 5 black men ages 40–49 in Manhattan
• 1 in 4 men who have sex with men (MSM) in Chelsea is infected
Additionally, in 2004, 1,038 New Yorkers first learned they were positive when they were diagnosed with AIDS. That means they had HIV for about 10 years and were never tested. Today, 80 percent of new AIDS diagnoses and deaths are among African Americans and Hispanics. Finally, the city health department estimates that 94,367 people in New York City have died of HIV/AIDS (this does not include 2007 and 2008).
In recent years, focus of the pandemic has been on Africa. But the CDC numbers show that gay and bisexual men account for 53 percent of new infections in the U.S. In fact, they’re the only demographic experiencing consistent increases in infection rates.
Clearly, a lot of work remains to be done.
St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan has been doing a lot of that work. Its HIV Center treats more than 4,600 patients a year. “The rate of HIV and AIDS is spreading at three times the national rate,” says Frederick Siegal, MD, director of the HIV Center.
St. Vincent’s, located on Seventh Avenue and 12th Street—Greenwich Village, the epicenter of the epidemic in the 1980s—did some of the earliest work for people with HIV.
That legacy continues today. For example, in September, the hospital was awarded a grant that will train and educate emergency room and urgent care providers about post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
What’s PEP? If you’re exposed to HIV, you can take a regimen of HIV meds daily for four weeks, killing the virus before it can take hold. The challenge is, you have to start the medication within 36 hours of exposure. If you think you’ve been exposed to HIV, get to St. Vincent’s emergency room immediately or stop by its clinic at 203 W. 12th St. The program is funded, so you may be eligible regardless of your insurance coverage. For more information on the PEP program, call 212-604-1777 or visit http://www.svcmc.org/body.cfm?id=1616
On Dec. 2, the HIV Center celebrates its 20th anniversary with a gala at Gotham Hall. Honorees include the city’s AIDS service organizations and political leaders. Kenneth Cole is the keynote speaker, Carson Kressley emcees and Nona Hendrix performs. For tickets, call 212-6034-6800 or visit svcmc.org/HIVevent.
Also log onto NationalAIDSStrategy.org. It’s a call for the U.S. president to create a national AIDS strategy, which will coordinate all disparate federal efforts to fight the domestic epidemic. The strategy would reduce infections, increase access to care and reinstate condom-based prevention over abstinence-only education; it would include measurable goals, timelines and accountability mechanisms.
George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has given billions of dollars to third world countries battling the pandemic. For a country to receive U.S. aid, it must have a national AIDS strategy. And yet, our own country has failed to implement one.
No wonder the statistics in our own back yard remain so devastating on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.
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