November 16, 2007

American AIDS Leaders Discuss the Domestic Epidemic

Today on AIDS.gov, a governmental Web-based AIDS resource, an interactive webcast brought together the top minds in the HIV/AIDS field to discuss the state of the domestic epidemic just weeks before World AIDS Day.

Moderator Christopher H. Bates, acting director of HHS’s Office of HIV/AIDS Policy, invited listeners to submit questions via e-mail to the panelists, who included: Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases with the National Institute of Health; Dr. Deborah Parham Hopson, HRSA’s associate administrator for HIV/AIDS; and Ms. Beverly Watts Davis, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

Topics of discussion included strategies to reach out to high-risk groups—such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and minority groups—Ryan White CARE Act funding, and the CDC’s upcoming release of the number of new HIV infections in the United States, which has been rumored to be up to 50 percent higher than the CDC’s current estimate of about 40,000 HIV-positive Americans per year.

When asked about whether or not the CDC could confirm the rumor, Fenton was tight-lipped. He did say that new figures were currently undergoing peer review, and that they would be released soon.

“There has been quite a bit of buzz about this,” said Fenton during the webcast. “We’re looking forward to publishing the results in the very, very near future.”

Washington Blade Online reports today that the CDC may publish the new data in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, possibly within the next few months. According to CDC spokesperson Jennifer Ruth, the CDC “is currently working to develop new estimates of HIV incidence, based on a new system that distinguishes recent infections from longstanding infections.” Ruth added that the new data would not be made available before World AIDS Day, December 1 (washblade.com, 11/16).