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American Morning

AIDS Over Two Decades

Aired May 31, 2001 - 10:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There have been incredible strides in the detection and treatment of HIV and AIDS over the past two decades. But experts say there have also been some alarming setbacks when it comes to stopping the spread of the disease.

Our Christy Feig has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since the first cases of AIDS were reported in 1981 in the gay communities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, almost every group in the United States has been affected. More than 800,000 Americans are currently living with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About a third of them don't even know they're infected and by the end of last year 450,000 Americans had died from the disease and the CDC estimates 40,000 more are infected every year.

Yet the gay community still sees the most new infections and according to a new report by the CDC, young gay men in the African- American community are especially at risk. The CDC surveyed gay men in their mid to late '20s in six cities and found almost one in six young gay and bisexual black men in these cities were newly infected with HIV.

DR. HELENE GAYLE, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL: The rate of new infections that we found among African-Americans was about five times higher than for whites and approximately four times higher than Latino young men in this population.

FEIG: The CDC says these statistics are a call to action.

GAYLE: This 15 percent is extremely high and could lead to a very, very devastating situation among this population of young gay men.

FEIG: Some in the gay African-American community say social factors such as the strong influence of the church don't always allow gay and bisexual men to come out of the closet.

CORNELIUS BAKER, WHITMAN-WALKER CLINIC: There are a lot of people who do have girlfriends, who do have wives and then have a secretive sexual life beyond that. FEIG: Powerful medicines have helped bring down the death rates from AIDS in recent years. Now it's the younger generations of gay men who weren't around to bury their loved ones who experts say are increasingly becoming complacent about protecting themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEIG: Now, it's this number of new infections, this 40,000 new infections every year that's really bothering the CDC. You see, that number hasn't changed in quite some time. In the mid 1980s it was 150,000 a year. It dropped down to 40,000 a year and it's stayed there ever since. So the CDC is launching a new prevention campaign and their goal for that campaign is to cut the number of infections by 50 percent in the next five years -- Daryn?

KAGAN: So, Christie, that's the number they're looking for, but what specific population are they looking to target with this new program?

FEIG: They're going after a couple of different groups here. One is obviously the 300,000 Americans who are infected and don't know it. They really want to track those people down and get them into treatment. Another group is high risk populations and people who are already infected. You see, the thinking here is that once people know they're infected with HIV they're more likely to take the proper prevention steps and be less likely to infect their partners.

KAGAN: Christie Feig in Washington, thank you. And as we said earlier, we are awaiting a news conference on AIDS by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There you can see a live picture from Washington, D.C. When it does begin, we will bring it to you live.

Stay with CNN as we take an in depth look at the AIDS epidemic. You can also go to our Web site and learn about the history of the disease and get a global view of the epidemic. Log onto CNN.com/AIDS20. AOL users can get there by using our keyword, CNN.

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