Overview

Human immunodeficiency virus - HIV continues to be a serious health concern across the world. In essence, HIV brings about harm to the body of an individual by destroying infection fighting white blood cells. Not all persons with HIV end up developing AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), which is the last HIV infection stage. In the United States, Centers for Disease and Control – CDC (2018) points out that HIV has been on the decline within the last decade as a result of targeted efforts to prevent the same. However, according to CDC, “progress has been uneven, and the annual infections and diagnoses have increased among some groups.” It is important to note that there are a wide range of HIV transmission modes, with some of the most prominent modes being unprotected sex, via blood-borne exposure, and from an infected mother to her child (Schulz, 2016). This text concerns itself with one of the demographic groups most affected by HIV. Some of the main transmission categories identified by CDC are male adult or adolescent category, female adult or adolescent category, and the child (under 13 years at time of diagnosis) category. The demographic group this text focuses on is gay and bisexual men, which falls under the male adult or adolescent category and the male-to-male sexual contact sub-category as par the CDC categorization. The substance of the text covers the period between 2010 and 2014.
From the... are reported amongst the gay and bisexual men demographic group. This includes man who have sex with other men exclusively and men who elect to have sex with both men and women. Currently, it is estimated that this group makes up 2% of the entire population of the United States. According to the HIV Surveillance Report, “the annual number and the rate of diagnoses of HIV infection in the United States decreased” within the period under consideration (i.e. between 2010 and 2015). The HIV Surveillance Report provides detailed analysis of surveillance data on HIV infection from across the country. The data is compiled and disseminated by the Centers for Disease and Prevention.
It should, however, be noted that although the HIV infection rates dropped across all the categories within the specified period, data presented by the CDC (via the surveillance report) indicates that among gay and bisexual men, new HIV infections remained relatively stable within the 6 year period. The report also indicates that 70% of new infections amongst men for the period under consideration were attributable to gay and bisexual sex contact. This effectively means that only 30% of new infections amongst men could be attributed to heterosexual relations and other transmission modes. The table below highlights diagnoses of HIV infection in the demographic group under consideration with…