Health scare of the week: The AIDS epidemic isn’t over

Despite decades of public education, HIV is still spreading in the U.S. among gay and bisexual men and among African-Americans, says the Centers for Disease Control. New research found that 56,000 people were newly infected with the virus that causes AIDS in 2006, 40 percent higher than previous estimates, and that blacks in their teens and 20s were particularly susceptible. Blacks make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 45 percent of the new infections. Black women were nearly 15 times more likely than white women to be infected with HIV, with most of these infections coming through high-risk sexual contact. Among whites, 81 percent of those newly infected were gay and bisexual. The study’s findings, Dr. Kevin Fenton of the CDC tells The New York Times, serve as “a powerful reminder that the U.S. epidemic of HIV disease is far from over.”