WASHINGTON, DC  --  The government is raising its estimate of how many Americans are becoming infected with the HIV virus every year by 50 percent, according to newspaper reports on Saturday.

For more than a decade, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have estimated the number of new HIV infections each year at 40,000. They now believe it is between 55,000 and 60,000, The Washington Post reports.

The higher estimate is the product of a new method of testing blood samples that can identify those who were infected within the previous five months and are based on data from 19 states and large cities that were extrapolated to the nation as a whole.

The CDC has not announced the new estimate, but two people in direct contact with the scientists preparing it confirmed it yesterday.

What is uncertain is whether the American HIV epidemic is growing or is simply larger than anyone thought. It will take two more years of using the more accurate method of estimation to spot a trend and answer that question.

Last update: 12-01-2007 12:27