Chicago News
There were 21,208 persons, chicago news, known to be living with HIV/AIDS in Chicago in 2010 and an estimated total of 25,000 persons infected when undiagnosed infections are included. Of the 953 new cases of HIV (not AIDS) diagnosed by the end of 2010, only 11 % cited injection drug use as a risk factor; this proportion was well below the 26 % reported in 2000. Same sex sexual contact continued to be the leading single mode of transmission of new HIV infections.
Non-Hispanic African-Americans constituted 59 % of new HIV diagnoses, despite constituting about 33 % of the city’s population, while non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics constituted 19 and 17 % of new infections, respectively. While there have been declines since 2001 in new HIV infections among females that were attributed to either drug injection or to heterosexual contact, the latter began to increase after 2005, while injection-related cases continued to decline. SATHCAP data suggest that non- injection use of heroin and cocaine is a predictor of heterosexual HIV infection.
A considerable proportion of Chicago students in grades 9–12 continued to report behavior that mayplace them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Data from the 2011 YRBS suggested that 52 % have had sexual intercourse, 36 % did not use a condom during their last intercourse (despite only 12 % using birth control pills), and 21 % consumed alcohol or drugs before their last sexual intercourse. Many students also live in neighborhoods with a high prevalence of HIV and other STDs, which increases their chances of having a sexual partner who is HIV/STD positive.
The prevalence of HIV infection among the mostly low-income participants in the SATHCAP study was about 7 %. Prevalence was highest (47%) among males who reported only male sex partners in the past 6 months. HIV prevalence was only slightly higher among injection drug users compared with non-injection drug users, which reflects declines in infections among the former and increases among the latter. Chicago has robust needle exchange programs supported by the Chicago Department of Public Health, and since the late 1980s, numerous other interventions aimed at increasing HIV testing and reducing HIV risk behaviors have been targeted at injection drug users.
Newly diagnosed HIV infections are most often found in Black men who have sex with men (MSM) and are younger than 30 years of age. In the NHBS survey, 50 % of such men reported using any illicit substance in the past 12 months, a level that was slightly less than reported by White men (56 %) and Hispanic men (51 %) in the study. The use of drugs before or during the most recent sexual encounter was less often reported by young Black MSM (33 %) compared with White men (40 %) and Hispanic men (43 %). The most commonly used drugs by young Black MSM were marijuana (47 %) and “club drugs,” which most likely were drugs sold as ecstasy (18 %). Almost no young Black MSM reported using methamphetamine (1 %) or crack cocaine (1 %) in the past 12 months.
