A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study on HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM), found that a staggering 48% of gay and bi-sexual men who were found to be HIV positive during the study were previously unaware of their HIV infection, according to a report on the study published in the Journal of American Medical Association.
The JAMA report included HIV prevalence data from the study (which took place from June 2004 through April 2005 in five US cities) from the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation's largest AIDS organization with AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Asia and Central America, expressed alarm over these high numbers and called for an immediate and far-reaching overhaul to the current "broken" HIV testing system in the US including widespread efforts to make HIV testing more accessible overall throughout the country.
"The fact that almost half of the gay men who tested HIV positive during this study had no idea they were infected with HIV underscores the sad reality that the HIV testing system in this country is broken and needs to fixed," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). "We need to normalize HIV testing and incorporate testing as a routine part of healthcare screenings in most healthcare settings. Testing and outreach also needs to become more easily accessible to the public, particularly to those in high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men."
During June 2004 -- April 2005, participants in five of seventeen National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) system cities (Baltimore, Maryland; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; New York, New York; and San Francisco, California) were tested for HIV infection after informed consent. A total of 2,261 men culled from 258 venues located throughout the five cities participated in the study, titled, "HIV Prevalence, Unrecognized Infection, and HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men -- Five U.S. Cities, June 2004 -- April 2005."
Among the study's findings: