Good news: HIV infection rate has fallen dramatically in U.S.

[DonViejo]

Source: Associated Press



By Bil Browning · Wednesday, February 15, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — New calculations to better track HIV infections confirm that the U.S. is seeing a strong and steady decline.

The number of new cases has been falling for years. But health officials wanted a clearer picture of how the epidemic was behaving. They count people when they were diagnosed with the AIDS virus — not when they actually contracted it, which can be months or years earlier.

Counting infections instead of diagnoses is a more ideal gauge — a kind of speedometer that tells how fast the epidemic is actually moving, said David Holtgrave, an HIV researcher at Johns Hopkins University.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used blood test results to help date the infections. Their calculations showed new infections dropped by nearly 18 percent over six years, the CDC reported Tuesday. Though health experts expected a decline, they welcomed the confirmation.

Read more: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/02/good-news-hiv-infection-rate-fallen-dramatically-u-s/

[Javaman]

1. In other new: the orange menace calls the calculations a lie. HIV is a bigger than black death!

then goes on to babble about building a wall around the HIV disease.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

2. I wonder if the PREP prophylactic is responsible for some of that.

Several of my single friends are taking it.

[YOHABLO]

6. Then they can afford it. It's not cheap.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. I don't really know much about it. Does insurance cover it?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Direct benefit of ObamaCare, I think. More uninsured getting health care means fewer

More uninsured getting health care means fewer people not knowing they are infected and passing it.

It means greater health awareness and so less needle sharing, for example.

Does any anyone know if people under treatment for HIV are less infectious? I think they would be.

[Aristus]

4. Yes. With the appropriate anti-retroviral treatment, a patient's viral count can fall so low

as to be undetectable. This lowers the risk of passing on the infection. But one should still take all proper precautions. There is still no cure for AIDS.

[IronLionZion]

5. Especially the medicaid expansion

it's a matter of life or death for many low income people living with the virus and have trouble finding jobs with health insurance.

Also the free screenings help people find out about it. Knowing that they have it goes a long way towards not spreading it. Also a part of treatment are stern lectures from their doctor and education about safe practices to avoid spreading it.