Faculty Bibliography

The study involved 5,719 men who were interviewed at dance clubs, bars and other places frequented by gays in Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Seattle. It tested the men for exposure to the AIDS virus, finding that 573 had H.I.V. Of those, 440, or 77 percent, had said they were unaware they were infected. The results of the H.I.V. tests were available to the men, but it is not known how many sought them, or learned that they were infected. In presenting an overview of the AIDS epidemic in the United States at the conference, Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, an AIDS official at the disease centers, described what he said was a growing apathy about the H.I.V. epidemic in the country. Because not all states report new H.I.V. infections, federal health officials use data from the 25 states that have monitored H.I.V. the longest to help gauge national trends. One problem officials must consider in extrapolating information elsewhere is that the 25 states account for only one-fourth of the nation's AIDS cases

The study tested the men for exposure to the AIDS virus, finding that 573 had HIV. Of those, 440, or 77 percent, had said they were unaware they were infected. The results of the HIV tests were available to the men, but it is not known how many sought them, or learned that they were infected

The rates of unawareness among minority gay men ages 15 to 29 in the study were staggeringly high. Among those studied, 90 percent of blacks, 70 percent of Latinos and 60 percent of whites said they did not know they were infected with HIV, the AIDS virus. The study involved 5,719 men who were interviewed at dance clubs, bars and other places frequented by gays in six cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle. The study tested the men for exposure to the AIDS virus, finding that 573 had HIV. Of those, 440, or 77 percent, had said they were unaware they were infected. The results of the HIV tests were available to the men, but it is not known how many sought them or learned that they were infected. Because not all states report new HIV infections, federal health officials use data from the 25 states that have monitored HIV the longest to help gauge national trends. One problem officials must consider in extrapolating information elsewhere is that the 25 states account for only one-fourth of the nation's AIDS cases

CORRECTION: ***** CORRECTION PUBLISHED JULY 8, 2002 *****A story in Monday's editions about a study of young gay and bisexual men in the United States contained an incorrect reference to the study's findings. It should have stated that among those found to have the virus associated with AIDS, 90 percent of blacks, 70 percent of Hispanics and 60 percent of whites said they did not know they were infected with HIV. The study involved 5,719 men who were interviewed at dance clubs, bars and other places frequented by gays in six cities: Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle. The study tested the men for exposure to the AIDS virus, finding that 573 had HIV. Of those, 440, or 77 percent, had said they were unaware they were infected. The results of the HIV tests were available to the men, but it is not known how many sought them or learned that they were infected. Interviews by CDC epidemiologists with people who were recently diagnosed with HIV infection or AIDS showed that 70 percent reported having been sexually active within the previous year, with their use of condoms varying. Women with steady male partners were least likely to report condom use; 57 percent said they used condoms. Heterosexual men with more than one partner were most likely to report condom use -- 75 percent. About two-thirds of gay men said they used condoms whether they had sex with a steady partner or more than one partner

In the Thai program, after pilot studies showed the benefits of the drug AZT in preventing such transmission in certain areas, the government mounted a program in October 2000 to reach the more than half a million women each year who give birth and the 10,000 infants a year who are born at risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS

The findings 'provide a beacon of hope' for extending Thailand's success to women and infants in other countries, said R.J. Simonds, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simonds worked on the project in Thailand from 1998 to 2001 and is a co-author, with Thai health officials, of another report to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In the report, to appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers examined changes in the rate of drug resistant infections among 225 newly infected HIV patients from 1996 to 2001. At the end of the study, 7.7% of newly infected patients showed resistance to protease inhibitors, compared with 2.5% at the start. More than 13% of new cases were resistant to non-nucleoside drugs by 2001, compared with none in 1996

Thai officials collected information each month from 822 public health hospitals in the country, with 9 of every 10 women who gave birth from October 2000 through September 2001 volunteering to be tested for H.I.V. infection. Most mothers paid for the test. AZT was given to 5,682 newborns, 88 percent of all babies born to infected mothers. Dr. Merle A. Sande, an AIDS expert at the University of Utah, said the findings had important implications for Africa, where 25 million people are infected and where relatively small but growing numbers of people are beginning to be treated with combinations of powerful anti-H.I.V. drugs. Dr. Sande, who also teaches doctors in Uganda how to use anti-H.I.V. drugs, said doctors and African governments must adapt and change strategies to deal with the resistant strains. The rising incidence of resistant H.I.V. strains ''is not desirable but it is not necessarily the death knell for treatment'' because anti-H.I.V. drugs can ''prolong life significantly even when there is resistance,'' Dr. Richard E. Chaisson, an AIDS expert at Johns Hopkins University, said in an interview

Thai and U.S. health officials reported that the first nationwide program in a developing country to prevent transmission from a mother to her newborn of the virus that causes AIDS has proved highly successful in Thailand. In the Thai program, after pilot studies showed the benefits of the drug AZT in preventing such transmission in certain areas, the Thai government mounted a program in October 2000 to reach the more than half-a-million women each year who give birth and the 10,000 infants a year who are born at risk of contracting HIV. The rising incidence of resistant HIV strains 'is not desirable, but it is not necessarily the death knell for treatment,' because anti-HIV drugs can 'prolong life significantly even when there is resistance,' Dr. Richard E. Chaisson, an AIDS expert at Johns Hopkins University, said in an interview

The findings 'provide a beacon of hope' for extending Thailand's success to women and infants in other countries, said Dr. R.J. Simonds, an epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simonds worked on the project in Thailand from 1998 to 2001 and is a co-author, with Thai health officials, of a report to be published in The Journal of the American Medical Association