Mexico City, August 2nd, 2008  –  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released its long-delayed revised estimate of annual new HIV infections in the United States. Data distributed at the International AIDS Conference, which begins today, reveals 56,300 new infections in 2006, a 40% increase over the previous estimate of 40,000. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation noted that the new figure highlights the inadequacy of current HIV prevention strategies while not necessarily revealing a surge in the AIDS epidemic.

 Because the new figure resulted from improved HIV surveillance and estimation methods—described in detail in the current edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, released simultaneously with the CDC announcement—it cannot be compared to previous estimates. Only subsequent years’ estimates derived using the same methods will reveal any trends in the rate of HIV infection nationally.

 Nonetheless, the figure does indicate that more people are at risk of and becoming infected with HIV than suspected, adding to the record number of 1.2 million Americans already living with the disease. This suggests that the U.S. has not adequately employed the most effective HIV prevention interventions available.

 Federal HIV/AIDS funding has remained flat since 2001, despite inflation and the increasing number of Americans living with HIV.

 “The Federal response to HIV prevention has unnecessarily endangered tens of thousands of Americans,” said Mark Cloutier, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “With this new, alarming estimate of HIV incidence, it would be public health malpractice not to act immediately to drive new infections down. There is no excuse to further delay refining and expanding evidence-based HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.”

 “We also must acknowledge that some communities are bearing the brunt of this epidemic, especially African Americans, gay men and the poor,” Cloutier said. “The bottom line is we need a comprehensive National AIDS Strategy with targets, measurable outcomes, a timeline for action, increased funding, and a focus on those most at risk in order to have a meaningful effect on the U.S. epidemic.”

 The recently-passed President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) commits $48 billion for global HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs. Signed into law last Wednesday, PEPFAR requires every beneficiary country to have a national AIDS plan, something the United States still lacks.

 “We cannot accept 56,300 new infections every year in this great nation. We can reduce and eventually end them,” said Cloutier. “In fact, we must.”