HIV Prevention: Now More Than Ever

HIV Prevention Saves Lives

Overwhelming evidence proves that HIV prevention efforts have saved countless lives, both in the U.S. and worldwide:

• Prevention efforts have helped slow the rate of new infections in the U.S. from over 150,000 per year in the late 1980's to 40,000 today.

• HIV prevalence among young white men in the U.S. declined by 50% between 1988 and 1993. Occurring at a time of high overall HIV prevalence, this decline marks a notable prevention success.

• Prevention efforts in New York City have contributed to a drop in HIV prevalence among injection-drug users in drug treatment from almost 34% in 1990 to just over 4% in 1998.
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• The number of U.S. infants who acquire AIDS through mother-to-child transmission has declined 73% from 1992 through 1998.

• Concentrated prevention efforts have turned around HIV epidemics in Uganda (where AIDS cases in urban areas have fallen by 50% since 1996) and Thailand, and have prevented an expected epidemic in Senegal.

Fighting HIV Where It's Hitting Hardest

The CDC directs the largest portion of its HIV prevention efforts to the African-American communities that have been hardest hit by HIV/AIDS:

• AIDS is the leading cause of death among African Americans ages 25-44.

• African Americans represent an estimated 13% of the U.S. population, yet they are believed to represent half of new HIV infections.

• Among African Americans, young gay men and young heterosexual women are hardest hit.

Since 1987, CDC has steadily built and supported innovative programs in African-American communities through national, regional and local organizations, including community and faith-based organizations. CDC also continues to work with Latino communities and others hard hit by the epidemic to build and sustain effective prevention programs.

More Critical Than Ever

There is still no cure for AIDS, and an estimated 40,000 Americans become infected with HIV every year. With recent advances in treatment, more people are living with HIV infection and AIDS. This means an increasing need for prevention efforts to help those infected maintain safer behaviors and to help others at risk stay uninfected.

More Diverse Than Ever

Prevention efforts are aggressively targeting a wider range of communities than ever before, including gay men of color, African-American and Hispanic women, white gay men, injection-drug users, and adolescents as they come of age.

More Hope Than Ever

We are entering a new era in HIV prevention, one in which scientific research provides cutting-edge behavioral and biomedical approaches to prevention. Effective risk reduction strategies, combined with new treatments for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, offer more hope than ever of further reducing the spread of HIV.

CDC: The Nation's Leader in HIV Prevention

HIV prevention means using every effective weapon to stop new HIV infections from occurring. The CDC works on these three fronts:

1. Helping Communities

Each year, the CDC provides over $400 million to build and support innovative prevention efforts, including:

• Funding programs run by 65 state, local and territorial health departments, 22 national and regional minority organizations, and 94 local organizations.

• Helping community organizations to implement and sustain prevention programs.

• Conducting training programs in effective approaches to prevention.

2. Researching Prevention

Biomedical

The CDC conducts basic research on the mechanics of HIV infection and disease progression. It also conducts research on new HIV prevention technologies:

• Impact of HIV treatment on transmission

• Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission

• STD treatment as a method of HIV prevention

• Vaccines

• Microbicides

Behavioral

The CDC develops and evaluates prevention programs nationwide, many of which provide information and social support to groups at risk for HIV, such as:

• Peer outreach for gay men

• Street outreach for injection-drug users

• Education programs for youth in and out of school

• Faith-based initiatives in African-American communities

3. Tracking HIV/AIDS

The CDC's unparalleled information-gathering systems track the occurrence and course of HIV throughout the U.S., indicating where prevention programs are most urgently needed now and in the future.