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April 1, 2006
HIV Infections Down in San Francisco
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 3:49 p.m. ET


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- New HIV cases have fallen by almost 10 percent
over the past five years, the city's first decline in infections since
the late 1980s, health officials said.

The number of new infections reported fell from 1,084 new infections in
2001 to 976 in 2006, according to preliminary estimates by San
Francisco's Department of Public Health.

Officials said the findings were somewhat surprising because the city's
gay male population increased 25 percent over the last five years, and
many younger gay men increasingly have high-risk sex.

''This is great news; we're making progress,'' said Mark Cloutier,
executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. ''But I think
it is both bad planning and bad public policy to look toward the future
based on a 'short-term trend.' We don't know how long this will last.''

The exact reasons for the decrease are unknown. But experts said one
reason might be a new practice among gay men of engaging in sexual
activity only with men with the same HIV status.

Nationwide, the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men of all
races rose 8 percent in 2004, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said.

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com
<http://www.latimes.com/>

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PERSONAL NOTE FROM BRANDON:

This is only the begining, the end of HIV has arrived!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pozboi2006
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pozboi2006>

www.poz4poz.com <http://www.poz4poz.com/>







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