Report

This report in the form of a journal article discusses the high incidence of HIV/AIDS among Blacks in the United States and the efforts of CDC to address it. CDC initiated a variety of activities to (1) better understand the factors that drive the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Blacks in the United States, (2) expand HIV testing and access to HIV treatment, (3) develop new interventions and scale up the availability of effective interventions, and (4) mobilize Black communities to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis facing them.

This report presents statistics and trends for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) in the United States. The report is divided into two parts: the National STD Profile (1984-2007) contains text and figures that provide an overview of STD morbidity among AI/AN in the United States; and the IHS profiles (1998-2007) present STD rates and trends for the 12 IHS administrative areas.

This report presents a summary of the findings and recommendations of the External Peer Review (EPR) process of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) HIV Prevention Activities. The review consisted of convening 73 experts from state and local governments, national partner organizations, academia, community-based organizations, and risk population stakeholders from different parts of the country. These experts had experience in HIV prevention and familiarity with DHAP’s intramural and extramural activities. They examined DHAP’s HIV prevention activities.

This article discusses the problem of late HIV testing in the United States and emphasizes the importance of HIV testing, diagnosis, and treatment, soon after HIV infection and before developing AIDS, to prevent more severe illness and death and reduce HIV transmission. Findings are reported from a study in which CDC analyzed data from 1996 - 2005 from 34 states with confidential name-based reporting to determine the percentage of persons who received an AIDS diagnosis less than or equal to 3 years after receiving an HIV diagnosis.

This article describes a study in which data were analyzed from the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to determine the extent to which adolescents are being tested for HIV. Results indicated that nationwide, 12.9 percent of all high school students had ever been tested for HIV. Testing increased with increasing grade level and decreased with increasing age at first sexual intercourse.

This report contains surveillance data on the incidence of viral hepatitis A, B, and C in the United States. It lists the number of acute clinical cases reported, estimated number of acute clinical cases, estimated number of new infections, number of persons living with chronic infection, annual number of chronic liver disease deaths associated with viral hepatitis, and percentage of persons ever infected with hepatitis A, B, and C for the years 2002 to 2007.

This report summarizes results of a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the San Francisco Department of Public Health to gather data on rectal and pharyngeal gonorrhea and chlamydia testing at screening sites managed by six gay-focused community-based organizations (CBOs) in five US cities during 2007. The purpose of the study was to determine sexually transmitted disease testing practices among CBOs serving men who have sex with men (MSM). Findings indicate that three organizations collected samples for nucleic acid amplification (NAA) testing and three for culture.

This report presents data on persons infected with HIV in Guangdong Province in Southeastern China. A case-based surveillance system (CBSS) was used to collect data on persons infected with HIV, including demographic characteristics and transmission categories. With assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Guangdong Center for Disease Control analyzed the CBSS data for the period 1997-2007. Results indicate that the number of HIV cases increased from 102 in 1997 to 4,593 in 2007.

This report describes the case of a cardiothoracic surgeon in Israel specializing in open-heart procedures who was found to be HIV-positive in January 2007, during evaluation for a fever of recent onset. The duration of infection was unknown. A review of the patients operated on by the infected surgeon during the preceding 10 years was conducted under the auspices of the Israel Ministry of Health to determine whether any surgeon-to-patient HIV transmission had occurred. Of 1,669 patients identified, 545 received serologic testing for HIV antibody. All results were negative.