Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Newsday - February 11, 2004
Laurie Garrett, Staff Writer
New HIV infections among gay men have held at a steady rate of about 1,100 cases a year, Dr. Lucia Torian, director of the city Health Department's HIV Epidemiology Program, said in an interview. But she said recent health department surveys show that more than half of the HIV-infected men in the city routinely have anal intercourse without using a protective condom.
"This is a prescription for a resurgent, explosive HIV epidemic," Torian warned. "Have we seen it yet? No. Could we? Definitely."
In late 2000, New York City made it mandatory that positive HIV test results be reported by laboratories and physicians. Since then city health officials have tracked down the reported cases, confirmed them and analyzed the trends.
In 2001, 6,400 new HIV diagnoses were reported, Torian said. An additional test run by the department found that 21 percent of those cases were infections less than six months old.
The tests also reveal that "our new cases of HIV are more likely to be women, more likely to be black and more likely to be in the category of heterosexual or 'no discernible risk,'" she said.
The studies found that nearly 65 percent of new infections in New York in 2001 were heterosexual.
And in 2002, 29 percent of new HIV diagnoses involved residents of Manhattan while 71 percent lived in the other boroughs, chiefly Brooklyn (28 percent) and the Bronx (24 percent). Even as the HIV caseload rises in the outer boroughs and among heterosexuals, HIV testing is promoted most heavily in the gay community, and few doctors in New York City recommend tests to their heterosexual clients, Torian said.
Of the 1,784 women diagnosed with HIV in 2002, 1,203 were black. Torian said the department believes new HIV infections among gay men have held steady based on a comparison of new infections with spot surveys taken in previous years.
"Everybody should get an HIV test," she said. "And every doctor should offer it routinely. It should be just like cholesterol screening."
Since 1985, HIV has taken a larger toll in New York City than any other location in North America, with 135,837 cases diagnosed, 62 percent of whom have died of AIDS.
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