UN: HIV Infections on the Rise in High-Risk Groups

(March 16) -- HIV infection rates among high-risk groups like gays, drug users and sex workers are on the rise around the world, The Associated Press reports, with U.N. AIDS agency chief Michel Sidibe saying the increase may be due to worsening discrimination against these groups in certain countries.

"We must insist that the rights of the minorities are upheld," Sidibe told the AP on Monday. "If we don't do that ... I think the epidemic will grow again. We cannot accept the tyranny of the majority."

In China, Kenya and Malawi, for example, 33 percent of new infections are occurring among homosexual men, according to the AP. In China, homosexuality is legal but remains stigmatized, and it was considered a mental illness until 2001.

Sidibe said groups whose behavior is criminalized are at a higher risk of infection for HIV-AIDS partly because they are unable to live their lives openly and often lack access to preventative measures and treatment. Eighty-five countries have laws criminalizing homosexuality.

In the U.S., the statistics were worse. Despite laws that are more tolerant of homosexuality, more than half of all new HIV infections in 2009 occurred among gay men, which Sidibe called "shocking." In the U.S., Sidibe said, "it seems like we have come full circle," and not in a good way.

"After almost no cases a few years ago, we are seeing again this new peak among people who are not having access to all the information -- the protection that is needed," he said.

Race may also play a factor. According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV infection rate for black men was nearly eight times the rate among white men.

Meanwhile, infection rates among drug users are up as well.

"You have 70 percent of new infections occurring in Eastern Europe and Central Asia among drug users, but they are criminalized," Sidibe told the AP. "They don't have access to services. They have to hide themselves and go underground."