More New Yorkers were diagnosed with HIV in 2023 than in 2022, according to the city health department’s latest annual report on the virus. But public health officials said that doesn’t mean the virus that causes AIDS is on the rise after years of decline.
The increase likely points to more people getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases again after a dip in testing and care during the COVID-19 pandemic, the officials said. Nonetheless, advocates say more work is necessary to improve equitable access to care and prevention, since some communities continue to have much higher rates of new infections.
“We at the health department, and certainly our partners, are conscious and of and talking about the need to really redouble efforts to get HIV and sexual health services back on the minds of New Yorkers, remind them that the infrastructure exists, that services are available,” said Dr. Sarah Braunstein, the assistant commissioner for city’s health department’s Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV and STIs.
Braunstein noted that someone can live with HIV “for quite a few years without symptoms, without illness, and without ever testing for HIV.”
In 2023, 1,686 people in New York City were newly diagnosed with HIV, up 7.6% from the prior year. That figure likely includes some people who contracted the virus prior to 2023. The city health department estimates, based on its own formula, that actual new cases of the virus were down 17% last year.
While Manhattan’s Chelsea — a relatively wealthy and historically gay area — had the highest rate of new infections of any neighborhood in 2023, the other areas that were hardest hit were primarily low-income communities of color, including Harlem, East New York and parts of the Bronx, the city’s report found.
Advances in medicine mean HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, but not everyone has the same access to care. Despite having high rates of HIV infection, Chelsea had relatively low mortality rates compared to other affected neighborhoods, according to the report.
“It’s very similar to the overdose data that we see, which is basically like, the disparities that have persisted for decades are the same or worse,” said Seth Pollack, director of community mobilization at Housing Works, an organization that advocates for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as providing health care and social services.
Braunstein acknowledged that the city needs to do more targeted outreach to reduce disparities in HIV prevention and care, including the use of PrEP, a medication that greatly reduces the chances of contracting HIV from someone who is infected. She said there has been some progress, but state data shows that while PrEP use has gone up overall, growth in the number of Black New Yorkers taking PrEP has started to level off in recent years. The number of white New Yorkers taking it has continued to increase significantly.
“We must remain vigilant and, like we did this year, work to protect funding for important citywide programs that we know work,” said Patrick McGovern, CEO of Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, which primarily serves LGBTQ patients.
At the last minute this year, Mayor Eric Adams reversed proposed budget cuts to a program that helps keep HIV patients’ viral levels “undetectable” — meaning they are virtually unable to transmit the virus to others.
The latest city data on HIV arrives as the state is also nearing the deadline to achieve a series of metrics aligned with its “Ending the Epidemic” initiative. The Gov. Andrew Cuomo-era initiative initially set a deadline of 2020, but that was pushed by the pandemic to the end of 2024.
State data shows New York still has much to do in order to achieve its goals, including its aim of reducing the annual number of new HIV diagnoses statewide to 1,515 or fewer.
“Addressing persistent health inequities, the social determinants of health and racial disparities remains the center of our focus as we move forward with ending the epidemic efforts in New York state,” said Cadence Acquaviva, a spokesperson for the state health department
She said that next week, the state will release its own HIV surveillance in addition to holding an “Ending the Epidemic” summit in Albany.
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