CDC Director Alarmed About HIV Ignorance
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
John Pope
September 20, 2003
Despite 22 years of AIDS awareness messages, as many as 280,000 Americans are unaware of their HIV-positive status, CDC's director said Friday. "In 1981, that would have been a tragedy, but in 2003 it's unconscionable," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, garnering applause at the US Conference on AIDS in New Orleans.
Drawing from CDC statistics, Gerberding said that not being tested for HIV is unthinkable for two reasons for anyone who might be at risk: Infected people are not getting treatment that could benefit them, and they are probably spreading the virus to their sex partners because they are not changing their high-risk behavior.
Working toward a five-year goal of cutting the number of new HIV infections in half, from 40,000 people a year to 20,000, CDC has stepped up its prevention campaign to make testing more accessible, prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, and work harder with infected people and their sex partners to ensure they are treated.
Gerberding offered several reasons why new HIV infections have been rising for three years: New prescriptions make AIDS seem less ferocious; young people are taking risks because they have not seen the ravages of the disease; and successful combination drug treatments are being mistaken for a cure.
Gerberding noted that the increase in HIV cases among young gay men is accompanied by a jump in cases of other STDs that can make people more vulnerable to HIV. "It's déjà vu all over again," said Gerberding, comparing current infection statistics to those she saw as a young San Francisco doctor treating some of the first US AIDS patients two decades ago.