CDC issues new statistics for HIV risk

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week issued a new set of statistics related to HIV risk for men.

According to the CDC, one in six gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV: one in two blacks; one in four Hispanics; one in 11 whites. In contrast, the rate of infection for heterosexual men is one in 473.

Based on HIV diagnosis and death rates from 2009 to 2013, the CDC report also found that people living in Georgia and other parts of the South are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV compared with other Americans.

LaMar Yarborough wasn’t surprised by the news.

Yarborough, 23, who is black and has AIDS, lives in Georgia, where HIV — the virus that causes his illness — is still raging. Abstinence-only sex education and poverty are contributing to its spread, said Yarborough, an HIV-prevention activist.

“We kind of saw this coming,” said Yarborough, who was diagnosed with AIDS about five years ago after having unprotected sex with men and women. “It is not shocking.”