A federal study shows the number of Americans newly-infected with HIV remained stable between 2006 and ’09, but infections are rising in certain categories. Betty Krones, a disease prevention specialist at the Cerro Gordo County Health Department, says the data shows a 21-percent rise in the number of younger people with HIV in the 13-to-29 age category, as well as an increase in cases for young black men.
She says blacks are eight times more likely to be infected with HIV than whites. She says there’s a larger stigma of being a black gay man than there is a white gay man, leading to fewer black gay men being tested.
Krones says blacks are at a higher risk of being infected with sexually-transmitted diseases. She says blacks have a higher incidence of other STDs, like gonorrhea, which can make it easier for a person to catch HIV if they come in contact with it. The latest figures for Iowa find about 1,600 people statewide living with HIV or AIDS, with about 1,300 of those cases in men. Typically, between 100 and 120 new cases are diagnosed each year in Iowa.
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Complete article at Radio Iowa : http://bit.ly/pOzbdf
