“Despite efforts to reduce disparities in HIV transmission among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States by optimizing treatment outcomes, significant racial disparities in HIV prevalence will likely persist for decades due to an alarmingly high concentration of HIV in black gay men, a new report finds.

Black MSM in the U.S. have been disproportionately affected by HIV since the beginning of the epidemic, although studies show that black men do not engage in more risk-associated behaviors than white men, and are just as, if not more, consistent about condom use and HIV testing.  Yet disparities in HIV incidence and prevalence between black and white MSM in the U.S. remain largely unexplained.

Reporting in the November 18 online edition of The Lancet HIV, researchers from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta and amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, assessed how existing disparities in HIV prevalence and in the HIV continuum of care explain differences in HIV incidence in MSM.”

Read the rest of the report summary on amfAR’s website: www.amfar.org/Racial-Disparities/

Learn more about HVCS’ programs for young gay black men in the hardest-hit areas of the Hudson Valley.