A new report by the Centers for Disease Control found that, while the rate of new HIV infections in the country has stayed steady the past few years, rates have dramatically risen among young gay and bisexual black men.
The CDC’s first multi-year HIV incidence surveillance report, which looked at data from 2006-09, determined that there have been an average of 50,000 new HIV infections annually the past few years. While the CDC estimated that men who have sex with men (MSM) account for just 2 percent of the nation’s population, in 2009 MSM comprised 61 percent, or 29,300, of all new infections.
The report analyzed data from 16 states and two cities — Chicago and Philadelphia — although the CDC did not break down the numbers geographically.
The rate of infection among MSM stayed relatively steady over the four-year period. In 2009, white MSM reported the greatest number of new infections — 11,400 — but were closely followed by African-American MSM, who reported 10,800 new infections.
HIV infections rose dramatically in young MSM, ages 13-29, jumping a total of 34 percent from 2006-09.
Largely fueling that increase is the 48-percent boost in infections among young black MSM — from 4,400 in 2006 to 6,500 in 2009.
The number of infections among young black MSM in 2009 exceeds the total number of new infections that year among white MSM in the 13-29 and 30-39 age groups combined.
The CDC cited numerous factors that could be affecting the high rates of infection among the young black MSM community, including limited healthcare access, higher proportions of individuals unaware of their HIV status and homophobia and stigma surrounding HIV.
Overall, African Americans accounted for 44 percent of new infections in 2009, while only making up 14 percent of the total national population. While men comprised 70 percent of new infections among blacks, black women were also disproportionately affected by the disease, comprising 57 percent of new infections among women in 2009.
Brian Green, executive director of SafeGuards, said the national trend in HIV incidence among young people held true for his agency and the city.
Green noted that recent Philadelphia Department of Health data have shown even more disturbing numbers than the CDC’s — with an increase in recent years of 50-60 percent of HIV incidence among young MSM.
Green surmised that the epidemic is being fueled in part by a continued lack of accurate sexual-health information being delivered to youth.
“A lot of middle-school students are becoming sexually active but there’s no real sex education in most schools,” Green said. “In the Philadelphia School District, we have had curriculum for sex education but the state requires that sexual-health education be abstinence-based and that message is really lost on youth who are already sexually active. And for gay youth, they’re being told to wait to have sex until they’re married, but you can’t get married in Pennsylvania.”
Those ideas are compounded by the fact, Green said, that many youth are shown by example that sex is a taboo topic.
“Young people are taught that sexuality is something that’s supposed to be behind closed doors and you can’t talk about it. But kids can’t make good choices about sexual health when no adults in their lives are talking to them about it. And for LGBTQ youth, they also know that their sexuality is stigmatized, so they’re going to talk about it even less and be more likely to take part in risky activities.”
Robert Burns, executive director of The Colours Organization Inc., said his agency has seen greater numbers of young MSM of color testing positive for HIV for a number of years, which he said may reflect, in part, more targeted testing and outreach efforts for this at-risk population.
Colours’ current campaign, the Social Networks Project, seeks to raise awareness of HIV among African-American MSM but Burns noted that, in addition to enhanced funding, better cooperation is needed among local agencies to combat the epidemic.
“The challenge has been getting more resources into the community and having a more coordinated plan among the organizations that are funded to do this work for African-American MSM,” he said. “I don’t think we’re doing a strong-enough job at coordinated communication between these agencies to do this work for this particular population.”
SafeGuards has employed numerous efforts to specifically target young MSM of color that focus on meeting the youth in their own environments — establishing a presence in the ballroom community, working with religious communities and offering outreach and testing at private sex parties frequented by this population.
Last fall, the organization launched Brothers United, a CDC-funded training program that recruits young black MSM leaders and equips them with information and resources to disseminate among their peers.
Forty-five young people have so far participated in the program and the group’s Facebook page has nearly 400 fans, many of whom Green said were previously unaware of the impact HIV is having on their community.
“Most of these youth have grown up without being surrounding by people getting sick and without hearing about the numbers, so they think it’s basically older guys who are at risk. But the rates are really astounding and when you tell them the real numbers, they’re like, ‘Wow, why is that?’ and they often want to know more and get interested and involved. And then having that peer-to-peer interaction where they can talk on Facebook and be supportive of each other and share things in their life has helped them to make good decisions for their own health.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].
