'Report Says Under 1 Percent of U.S. [young] Adults Have HIV'

From The Body.

In a new report, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) said its household survey shows about one-half of one percent of adults ages 18 to 49 are infected with HIV.

This rate is stable, and the report confirms the results of other surveys showing that black men in the United States are far more likely than other Americans to be infected with HIV. The NCHS survey said black men ages 40-49 had the highest infection rate -- close to 4 percent.

The report combines data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2006. Survey participants volunteer to have their blood tested for a variety of conditions, and they also undergo physical exams. Due to the "very low prevalence" of HIV, "you have to combine all the years," said study leader Gerry McQuillan.

"In 1999 to 2006, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 18-49 years in the civilian non-institutionalized household population of the United States was 0.47 percent," according to the report.

This percentage equates to between 447,000 and 841,000 people, with 618,000 being the middle number, McQuillan said. NCHS included 11,928 adults in the survey and extrapolated these numbers to the full population. The report does not include data on how many persons are newly infected with HIV.

In the survey, men were more likely to be infected (0.7 percent) than women (0.2 percent). People infected with herpes simplex type 2 virus (genital herpes) were 15 times more likely to be co-infected with HIV.