Ex-UN AIDS Chief Slams CDC for Withholding Data Showing US Gov’t Had Understated Number of New AIDS Cases by 40%

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged it has drastically underestimated the number of people becoming infected with AIDS in the United States. The CDC had been reporting 40,000 people get infected each year, but now the agency estimates the figure is 56,000—an increase of 40 percent. CDC officials said the higher infection rates were discovered after using the agency’s new blood-test technology. The Wall Street Journal reports the CDC knew about the increased number of cases since last year but waited to make the announcement until the opening of the international AIDS conference in Mexico. AIDS activists are now calling for increased federal funding for AIDS prevention programs. Since 2002, the CDC’s prevention budget has shrunk by nineteen percent percent when adjusted for inflation.

Stephen Lewis is the former UN Envoy on AIDS in Africa. He is chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which funds community-based AIDS initiatives in Africa; and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization based in Boston. Stephen Lewis joins me now from Mexico City, where he is taking part in the International AIDS Conference.

Stephen Lewis, Former Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which funds community-based AIDS initiatives in Africa; and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization based in Boston.

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