As the rate of people infected with HIV is progressively rising, a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals a worrying trend: young black men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s are much more likely to be newly infected with HIV than other groups in the United States. The analysis conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which appears in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows 53 percent of the estimated 56,000 cases of new HIV infection in 2006 were among gay and bisexual men, and 46 percent of the infections occurred among black people.

Black women were almost 15 times more likely to get HIV than white women and almost four times more likely than Hispanic women, according to the study. African Americans overall accounted for 45 percent of new HIV infection in 2006, followed by Caucasians and Hispanics.

“First, the number of new HIV infections among young black [gay and bisexual men] is alarming and shows the need to reach each new generation with prevention early in their lives. Second, the heavy impact of HIV infection in white [gay and bisexual men] in older age groups demonstrates the need for ongoing efforts to keep gay and bisexual men HIV-free over the course of their lifetime. A third finding: compared to women of all races, black women bear the heaviest burden of HIV,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC.

Another CDC report released in August 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. The report found that black Americans were seven times more likely to be infected than whites.

In August, a CDC report estimated that about 56,300 new infections occurred nationwide in 2006, significantly more than the 40,000 estimated in previous years.

Prevention strategies should be improved in order to reduce transmission of HIV among those most at risk. This may lead to the conclusion that prevention 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.