ATLANTA — The number of new HIV infections for young gay and bisexual men has risen by 22 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to a new study released this week by the Centers For Disease Control (CDC).
Joseph Prejean, CDC chief of the Behavioral and Clinical Surveillance Branch, said the rising number of infections for gay and bisexual youth may be based on inaccurate perceptions that HIV has become a manageable disease.
“We do realize that many men who have sex with men do probably underestimate their personal risk and believe that treatment advances minimize the health threat,” he said.
The CDC reports that the rate of new HIV infection(s)in the United States has remained fairly constant at about 47,500 infections. Gay and bisexual men account for 6 percent of those new infections, but minority males — particularly black men — account for more new infection rates than any other subgroup.
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The CDC estimates that the average cost of treating HIV over a person’s lifetime costs an estimated $400,000.