AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES CALLS FOR INCREASED HIV PREVENTION FUNDING AND TARGETED PROGRAMMING AS U.S. INCIDENCE NUMBERS RISE

ANNUAL NEW HIV INFECTIONS NEARLY TWICE PREVIOUS ESTIMATES

Los Angeles, Calif., August 1, 2008 -- AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) joined advocates around the nation in calling for increased funding for targeted, evidence-based HIV prevention programs in response to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s new HIV incidence figures.

In a study to be published August 3 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, CDC is reportedly revising HIV infections in the U.S. to 56,000 annually, a 40 percent increase over the longstanding estimate of 40,000 annual HIV transmissions – a number that has held steady since 1994. According to CDC, these more accurate estimates are made possible by a technology that can distinguish recent HIV infections from long-standing ones.

The new estimate follows a CDC report from June of this year that showed that HIV/AIDS diagnoses among men who have sex with men increased 8.6 percent from 2001--2006. Gay and other men who have sex with men accounted for 46 percent of the total U. S. diagnoses during the reporting period, with the number of HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed among young (aged 13-24) black men who have sex with men nearly doubling during the period. HIV incidence rates are likely to be as troubling for Latino and other men of color who have sex with men, given that California and other large states were excluded from this study.

"Better numbers tell us that we need to better target and tailor our scarce prevention dollars," said Craig E. Thompson, executive director of APLA. "Gay men and other men who have sex with men of every race and ethnicity are the single largest group affected by HIV/AIDS in this country. Under-funded, ‘cookie-cutter’ prevention is no longer viable if we want to control the epidemic in the United States."

As of November 2007, the CDC has identified 49 evidence-based interventions with demonstrated efficacy in reducing HIV incidence, of which 22 have been disseminated for use. Just one of those 22 interventions is specifically designed for use with gay men of color.

Overall, when adjusted for inflation, prevention funding has declined in the U.S. every year since 2001, and today comprises just three percent of overall spending on domestic HIV/AIDS programs. A CDC plan to reduce annual new infections by 50 percent by 2005 failed. The CDC is now actively promoting routine HIV testing – in part to help identify the 250,000 Americans infected with HIV who do not know their status.

"Testing is important but prevention must become our focus," Thompson said. "The day of being guided by fear of a generalized epidemic in the U.S. is over. We need to invest in targeted, multi-level and culturally relevant interventions that are shown to be effective with gay men and other men who have sex with men. And we need to do it now."

Some estimates suggest that prevention programs have helped avert between 200,000 and 1.5 million HIV infections between 1981 and 2000. Mother-to-child transmission has been nearly eliminated in the U.S., and syringe exchange programs in combination with substance abuse treatment programs, when available, have reduced transmission of HIV among injecting drug users.

APLA is among national advocates calling for the U.S. to develop what it asks of other nations it supports as they combat AIDS: a national strategy to achieve improved and more equitable results. That strategy would have as its primary focus the prevention and treatment needs of African Americans, other communities of color, gay men of all races, and other groups at elevated risk.

"The debate about where to direct scarce resources must cease, and a commitment to adequately fund all aspects of combating HIV/AIDS in impacted communities must follow," said Thompson. "The path is clear: We must fund ourselves out of this epidemic."

 

AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Marking 25 years of service in 2008, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.