Federal Report: HIV Among US Poor Matches Rates in Developing Countries

(July 19) -- HIV is so pervasive in the poorest urban regions of America that infection rates match those of developing countries, where the condition is endemic among the general population.

That's the startling conclusion of a new report, commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and presented at this week's International AIDS Conference in Vienna.

The report is the first federal assessment of the powerful connection between poverty and HIV.

Researchers evaluated 9,000 Americans living in some of the country's poorest neighborhoods, spanning 23 cities.

Among those living below the poverty line, rates of infection were 2.4 percent. By comparison, the national average is 0.45 percent.

Because the study only looked at heterosexual adults, it's also a reminder that HIV in the U.S is by no means exclusive to gay men or intravenous drug users.

The report also raises the question of race. Blacks made up 77 percent of the sample population, though researchers found that Hispanics and whites in the targeted communities were just as likely to contract HIV.

Now, some experts are calling for an approach to HIV prevention that targets poverty -- which has obvious racial implications -- rather than the illness itself.

"You talk about 'Can we decrease the HIV burden in the United States?' I would say, 'What can we do to decrease poverty in the United States?"' Dr. Carlos del Rio, chairman of global health studies at Emory University, told CBS News.

And with 25 percent of blacks living below the poverty line, when it comes to HIV, poverty and race can't be examined separately, adds the Black AIDS Institute.

"As a result, even when you think you are looking at HIV/AIDS through the lens of economics, you are still looking at the disease through the lens of race," reads a statement from the group. "A rose is a rose, as they say."