
HIV Rates Down in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- San Francisco health officials
report that new HIV cases in the city have fallen by almost 10 percent
over the past five years. This is the city's first decline in infections
since the late 1980s.
According to estimates by San Francisco's Department of Public Health, the
number of reported new infections fell from 1,084 new infections in 2001
to 976 in 2006. Over the same time period the gay male population of San
Francisco is estimated to have grown with 25%. Health officials say they
are surprised by the decrease in infections, considering the increase in
the gay population, and the fact that many younger gay men increasingly
have high-risk sex.
"This is great news; we're making progress," says Mark Cloutier, executive
director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "But I think it is both bad
planning and bad public policy to look toward the future based on a
short-term trend. We don't know how long this will last."
Even though the reasons for the decrease are unknown, some experts beleive
one reason to be that many gay men now prefer to engage in sexual activity
only with men with the same HIV status.
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