According to new estimates in National Health Statistics Reports of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), no considerable change has been noted in the occurrence of HIV infection among adults in the US.

It has been reported by Joseph Woodring, DO, MPH, and colleagues at the CDC that from 2007 to 2012, occurrence of HIV infection among adults in the US between the ages of 18 to 59 years was 0.39%. It was down only to some extent from the previous estimate of 0.47% among 18 to 49-year-olds for the period 1999 to 2006.

There was an increase in HIV prevalence with age. It was from 0.24% among people between ages of 18 to 39 to 0.64% among 50 to 59-year-olds, but this wasn't significant as per statistics. HIV prevalence was more in men than women and in non-Hispanic blacks than other groups of different race/ethnicity combined.

Factors linked to HIV infection include a history of being in a group having high risk, herpes simplex virus-2 infection, a history of 10 or more sexual partners in lifetime, same-sex sexual relation among men, or a history of sexually-transmitted infection.

The authors draw attention to a number of limitations in the data analysis together with “possible bias resulting from those at the highest risk not being within the scope of the NHANES sample (i.e., outside of the civilian, noninstitutionalized household population — incarcerated, institutionalized, or homeless populations, among others)”.