New Study on HIV Transmission

A new study, touted as one of the most comprehensive on the transmission of HIV in the U.S., shows that transmission is occurring faster than thought and like other recent studies, African-American gay and bisexual men are the hardest hit.

Black gay and bisexual men are also becoming infected at a young age: in their teens and 20s, but another hard hit group is white gay men in their 30s and 40s. White gay men account for 46% of new infections, and the majority are in those older age groups. It would seem that for young black gay men, education and lack of government prevention programs (Bush administration has focused of course on abstinence-only) is the issue, while for the older white gay men it's an issue of condom fatigue, which we've certainly discussed a lot in recent years. Both are a daunting challenge.