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.