The number of new HIV infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics. The trend is occuring even as AIDS deaths and overall HIV infection rates in the city have steadily declined, reports the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The annual number of new infections among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men rose 34 percent between 2001 and 2006, and rose for all men under 30 who have sex with men by 32 percent.

AIDS experts find it most troubling that at a time when the number of new cases among older gay men is dropping — by 22 percent in New York City during the same period — there is a worrisome growth of HIV infection among young men.

The experts say significant factors feeding the trend appear to be higher rates of drug use among younger men, which can fuel dangerous sex practices, optimism among them that AIDS can be readily treated, and a growing stigma about HIV among gays that keeps some men from revealing that they are infected.

There has also been a substantial increase in the number of new infection cases among young white men who have sex with men, but still that group had fewer new cases in 2006: 100, compared with 228 among blacks and 165 among Hispanics.

The rising rates for young men in New York City come as federal health officials acknowledge that infection rates nationwide, while flat, may be substantially higher than previously thought because of underreporting.

The highest rates of HIV infection nationally are among gays, blacks and Hispanics, with a recent trend toward a younger infected population mirroring New York City’s experience, according to AIDS researchers, who say they are concerned that the country’s infection rates over all have not declined in the past 10 years.

AIDS activists and medical providers say the rates among young men could signal a new wave of the disease.

"Unless you start pulling it apart, unless you start looking at really addressing this and talking honestly, unless you start talking about it in a real way," said Soraya Elcock, deputy director for policy at Harlem United Community Aids Center, in a neighborhood that has one of the highest infection rates in the city, "we’ll be here in another 20 years having the same conversation."

source: New York Times