CDC Estimates Half of New HIV Infections Occur Among Black Americans

Blacks have long shouldered a disproportionate burden of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. Recent figures indicate how great that burden continues to be.

CDC researchers analyzed data on new HIV diagnoses from 2005 through 2008 in 37 states that had longstanding HIV surveillance systems. Although blacks made up only 14% of the population in these states, they accounted for half of the new HIV diagnoses made. Forty-five percent of the men with new diagnoses were black, as were 66% of the women. In 2008, the rates of new diagnoses among black men and women were 8 and 19 times higher than the rates among white men and women and 2 and 4 times higher than the rates among Hispanic men and women. Among black men, the most common reported modes of HIV acq…