December 7, 2009

Michigan: HIV Among Teens More Than Doubles From 2003 to 2007

The rate of new HIV cases among 13- to 19-year-olds in Michigan more than doubled between 2003 and 2007, according to a World AIDS Day report from Michigan’s Department of Community Health written about in the South Bend Tribune.

Of those young people, 85 percent are African Americans in general and nearly 62 percent are African-American men who have sex with men (MSM).

According to the original report, the new diagnoses among 13- to 19-year-olds went from 3.2 to 7.3 cases per 100,000. The report did not include actual numbers of diagnoses.

In addition, African Americans make up 14 percent of Michigan’s population but accounted for 60 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed there in 2007.

Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC, said African Americans’ sexual networks tend to have a higher prevalence of HIV, adding that blacks are more likely to come into contact with an HIV-positive person than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States.

Search: Michigan, teens, African American, MSM

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