WASHINGTON - The rate of HIV infections in United States continues to remain stable, according to latest figures released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
Less than one half percent (0.47) of the US household population of adults with age range of 18 to 49 years are infected with HIV, CDC said. The agency made use of surveys from 1999 to 2006 but did not include the homeless, prisoners and patients in institutions.
Only those people who have taken part in the government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey have been considered. Overall 11,928 adults were included in the survey and the results expanded to include the whole US population.
"What we have done is taken data from our surveys in 1999 to 2006 because HIV has a very low prevalence. You have to combine all the years. In 1999 to 2006, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 18-49 years in the civilian noninstitutionalized household population of the United States was 0.47 percent", lead researcher Gerry McQuillan said in the report.
McQuillan said that the total number of infections could be anywhere between 447,000 to 841,000 people. The report adds that blacks aged between 40 to 49 years had the highest infection ration of over 4 percent.
Men were more prone to develop HIV infections with 0.7 percent of the population at risk, while 0.2 percent of women developed the infection. Furthermore the CDC report stressed that people having herpes simplex type 2 virus infection had a 15 times increased risk of developing HIV.
The detailed report can be accessed at www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db04.pdf.
