July/August Issue Home
Download PDF Version
PA Online Poll

Departments

• Exclusive Online News Briefs
• TPAN Programs and Meetings, and Events
• Editor’s Note
• Readers Forum
• PA Online Poll
• News Briefs
• Ask the HIV Specialist
• The Buzz
• Wholistic Picture
• Pickett Fences

Articles

• The Invisible
• Transgender Therapy and HIV
• Seeking Validation
• One-on-One with Alexandra Billings
• Challenges of the Young and Transgender
• Ginger Valdez
• An Interview with Walter Bockting, Ph.D.
• Policing Gender and Sexuality
• Teo’s Journey
• A Transgender Therapy Primer
• Lois Bates
• Safer Sex Post-SRS:
  A Brave New World, Indeed
• Joy Morris-Hightower
• Resources

Update on the 17th International AIDS Conference

HIV incidence rate 40% higher than previous estimate, CDC reveals

President Bush signs bill to triple funds for AIDS

Update on the 17th International AIDS Conference

The PA Team would like to thank all of you who tuned in and contributed to our daily blogs from the AIDS 2008 conference in Mexico City.

We sincerely appreciate hearing from you as we expand the PA online community at our newly designed website, www.positivelyaware.com. If you haven’t already done so, you can register now (it’s free and it only takes a minute…we promise) and join in on the dialogue. You can comment on recent articles from Positively Aware or start discussion topics of your own, about what interests you.

Also, be on the lookout for continued coverage of the 17th IAS in upcoming PA E-updates, as well as in the November/December issue of Positively Aware.

back to top

HIV incidence rate 40% higher than previous estimate, CDC reveals

So, in case you haven’t already heard, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally released its most recent and long awaited HIV incidence data, and reported that for years they’ve been underestimating the annual number of new infections.

The new data suggests that in 2006, an estimated 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the U.S., reflecting a 40% increase over the previous estimate of 40,000 new infections annually.

“It should be noted,” says a statement on the CDC website, “that the new incidence estimate does not represent an actual increase in the numbers of HIV infection. Rather, a separate CDC historical trend analysis suggests that the annual number of new infections was never as low as 40,000 and that is has been roughly stable [at somewhere between 55,000 and 58,000] since the late 1990s.”

Gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities, and African American men and women, are the groups most affected by HIV, according to the new data. Fifty three percent of all new infections in 2006 occurred in gay and bisexual men. And, while African Americans comprise approximately 13% of the U.S. population, this ethnic group accounted for 45% of the new HIV infections in 2006.

Lots of focus at the 17th International AIDS Conference was centered around the development of a national strategy for combating the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic, with even former President Bill Clinton weighing in as he addressed conference attendees in Mexico City.

“For Americans, this should be a wake-up call,” said Clinton. “Even as we fight the epidemic globally, we must focus at home. And I intend to do so with my foundation.”

back to top

Ever experience Condom Induced Erectile Dysfunction??

Researchers from Amsterdam presented a study at the AIDS Conference in Mexico City which found that a significant number of men were experiencing a condition that has been dubbed COINED (Condom Induced Erectile Dysfunction), which may be a unique predictor of sexual risk for some men (See Study at aids2008.org).

We’d like to know…have you or your partner ever experienced a loss of erection when using a condom? Give your answer at www.positivelyaware.com, it’s quick and anonymous!

back to top