New hope for HIV vaccine

New discovery of a bacterium native to the human body that eats the coating of HIV viruses.

"Soon the majority of HIV-infected individuals will be women, according to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative."


Did you Know ...

* At least half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are among people under 25.

* Most young people are not concerned about getting AIDS. 1

* HIV, for least one NY man, apparently has become resistant to three classes of anti-retroviral medication, and its transition to AIDS isvery short -- less than one year. This man may be the first of many. 2

* African Americans are more affected by HIV and AIDS than any other race.3

* More women are getting HIV and AIDS than ever before. 4

* Most men who get HIV have sex with other men.5

* Most people don?t know their HIV status. 6

* The hardest hit group of Americans is young African American men who have sex with men. One third are infected with HIV; most do not know.7

Notes:
1. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS (2004), 58% of young Americans are ?not concerned? about becoming infected with HIV. Only 24% are "very concerned." Numbers for older Americans are much lower.

2. This man's case may not actually be quite so newsworthy. According to one study published last year in the journal AIDS, about 13 percent of 17,300 people with HIV have developed resistance to all three classes of drugs.

3. More than half of AIDS deaths are African Americans. The proportion of African Americans with AIDS is 10 times that of whites. 65% of teens who get HIV are African American. AIDS is the number one cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44.

4. 27% of HIV cases in 2003 were women. In 1985, the proportion was only 8%.

5. 57% of HIV diagnoses among men in 2003 were "men who have sex with men."

6. Less than half of Americans say they have been tested for HIV. Only 20% say they have been tested in the past year.

7. 32% of African American men who have sex with men, ages 23-29, living in major cities, are HIV+.

* 200,000 New Yorkers are HIV+
* 40,000 don't know