April 13, 2018 – Still Epidemic

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Anchor lead: HIV spread is not controlled, Elizabeth Tracey reports

The International AIDS Society has just released their annual letter, with issues in HIV management and transmission front and center, especially concerns over whether funding from worldwide sources will continue. Joseph Cofrancesco, an HIV expert at Johns Hopkins, says another important issue remains disenfranchisement of populations at risk for HIV infection.

Cofrancesco: There are still certain parts of our societies that are still not well integrated and particularly in certain countries where men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who may use drugs, are criminalized and are still not in the system. So if you look at the rates of transmission in certain populations and in certain countries, and if you look at the United States and in young African American males, there’s still an epidemic.    :31

Cofrancesco emphasizes that we are all at risk when HIV isn’t contained. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.