WASHINGTON, April 26 (AFP) - A significant number of young bisexual and homosexual men in the United States are unaware that they carry the AIDS virus, according to the findings of a study by US federal health authorities published Tuesday.
In a survey of 5,600 men aged between 15 and 29 years old, of those who tested positive for HIV, some 77 percent did not know they had become infected with the virus, said Duncan MacKellar of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the study.
A majority believed they were at low risk for the disease. Half said they had gay relations in the prior six months.
Of the total number tested for the disease, 10 percent were found to be HIV-positive.
People were recruited for the study in bars, stores and in parks in six major US cities. According to the researchers, findings may not be representative of bisexual and gay men generally in the US population.
Questions ranged from sexual behavior, to how those surveyed viewed their risk of infection and how often they tested for HIV.
Federal authorities would like to make AIDS tests routine, in a bid to reduce infection rates believed to be caused by people being ignorant they are carriers of the virus.
The AIDS virus has hit US minorities particularly hard, especially African American women, according to earlier CDC figures.
Blacks account for more than 50 percent of all new cases of AIDS diagnosed in the United States in the last few years, with 72 percent of those cases among women.
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