Despite media campaigns and free condoms to convince New Yorkers to get tested for HIV and practice safer sex, thousands still remain unaware they have HIV and are too scared to find out, Metro New York reports. The city health department estimates that one in five HIV-positive New Yorkers do not know their status, and that each year 1,000 people also have AIDS by the time they are tested for HIV. Populations at highest risk include immigrants, who avoid testing because they think an HIV diagnosis will imperil their right to live in the country, and people in affluent areas such as Westchester, who assume they do not have the virus. The city health department estimates that, as of September 2010, nearly 109,000 New Yorkers are living with HIV.

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