CDC: Homosexual men account for 61% of new HIV infections but only 2% of population

by Patrick B. Craine

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has estimated that homosexual men account for 61% of the new HIV infections in the United States while they only amount to about 2% of the country’s population.

Earlier this month, the CDC released estimates for HIV infections from 2006-2009 showing that new infections remained stable at around 50,000 for each of the four years.

Homosexual men accounted for 29,300 of the estimated 48,100 new infections in 2009, and homosexual men aged 13 to 29 accounted for 27% of the new cases.

The only group in which new HIV infections is increasing, they say, is young homosexual men – driven by an alarming increase in infections from African Americans.  They estimated that the new infections among young black homosexual men increased 48 percent in the period of 2006-2009 (from 4,400 HIV infections in 2006 to 6,500 infections in 2009).

The study also revealed that almost 20% of homosexual men have HIV, while nearly half of those who do are unaware of it.