CDS’s advances in blood-testing methods of measuring newly diagnosed infections led to a revised estimate of the number of new infections. Using sophisticated testing methods, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been able to provide more accurate estimates, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

About 56,000 people became infected with HIV in the past year, according to the revised estimate of HIV’s toll in the United States.

“CDC’s first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is – and has been -- worse than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006,” the CDC said in a statement.

The number of new infections is thought to be 40 percent higher than earlier projections. Dr. Kevin Fenton added that the number of new infections has remained relatively constant since the late 1990 but this number remains “unacceptable high.” He said 15,000 to 18,000 Americans die every year of AIDS.

A recent report has reached the conclusion that the rate of HIV infection is progressively rising among “men who have sex with men” (MSM). The biggest percentage (46%) of HIV/AIDS infections has been reported among men with homosexual orientation. Black Americans are seven times more likely to be infected than whites. Afro-Americans are the most exposed male human beings to HIV infection (annual rate of change 14.9 percent), followed by Caucasians (9.4 percent annual increase) and Hispanics (7.9 percent).

“We need to develop programs that specifically target those most at risk, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and men who have sex with men,” Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive officer of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The CDC spends about $750 million a year on AIDS prevention, which is, perhaps, as important as treatment. HIV/AIDS infections are discovered very late, sometimes as long as 10 years after exposure, in approximately every third AIDS patient. Often, infected people have engaged in unprotected sex with many different partners during this time.