The number of people infected with the AIDS virus, HIV, increased 11 percent in the U.S. from 2003 to 2006 as better treatments have prolonged their lives, according to a study released my the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The HIV-infected population rose to 1.1 million in 2006 from an estimated 994,000 in 2003.Since combinations of powerful drugs were introduced in 1996, the average life expectancy of 20-year-old HIV patients has risen about 13 years, scientists said in the medical journal Lancet in July. The estimate also reflects CDC's recent study that raised its count of annual new infections by about 40 percent to more than 56,000, the Atlanta-based agency said.
Blacks were the hardest hit racial group, accounting for about 46 percent of cases in 2006. About 1.7 percent of U.S. blacks are infected, compared with 0.6 percent of Hispanics and 0.2 percent of whites.
The agency has pushed HIV testing to encourage infected people to begin life-saving treatment programs and make them aware of the risk of spreading the infection. About half of new infections originate from people who have the virus and don't know it, according to the CDC.
About half of all patients were men having sex with men, or MSM, the study said. About 18 percent of people contracted the virus by injecting drugs with contaminated needles.
About 33 million people are infected with HIV worldwide with 2.7 million new infections last year, according to a July 29 report by UNAIDS, the New York-based agency that coordinates the United Nations response to the disease. The number of deaths dropped about 10 percent to 2 million in 2007 because of increased availability of drugs, the report said. Source Bloomberg news and CDC.
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