New data from the CDC indicates that -- while all men who have sex with men are still at a high risk for contracting HIV -- black versus white MSM are contracting the disease at different ages. It seems that black MSM who are seroconverting are doing so in their late teens and early twenties, while their white counterparts are contracting the disease in their 30s and 40s.

This is VERY important information, and should translate directly into targeted prevention approaches for the two communities. Research has already demonstrated that black MSM generally are not engaging in higher risk sexual behavior than white MSM. But I wonder if that data has an fluctuation by age group. That would be very important info in interpreting this new data.

The data on white older MSM I'm sure is in part due to condom fatigue, something I quickly discovered in my research this summer interviewing HIV-negative bottoms in San Francisco. The older guys in my study almost universally hated condoms, and weren't afraid to say so. They were sick of using them. For many of these guys, bottoming was a strategy to avoid having to use them themselves -- that is, to avoid having to put condoms on their own dicks. In this sense, bottoming was a safer sex strategy for many of the men I interviewed.

We need some qualitative, on the ground work, that really digs deep into the practices, norms, and cultures of these different communities, however, before we can really understand where these numbers are coming from.

Here's the New York Times:

An unusually detailed study of people newly infected with H.I.V. in the United States has confirmed that the majority of new cases occur among gay and bisexual men and that blacks are most at risk. But the data show that whites and blacks tend to be infected at different times in their lives with the virus that causes AIDS.

Most new infections of white gay and bisexual men occur when the men are in their 30s and 40s, the study found, while black gay and bisexual men are more likely to be infected in their teens and 20s. The results were reported on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The C.D.C. reported last month that the study found that the virus was spreading faster in the United States than had been thought. In 2006, the study found, 56,300 people were newly infected with H.I.V. — 40 percent more than the agency’s previous estimate of roughly 40,000 new cases a year. The study was performed using new technology that allowed researchers to distinguish between new and older infections.

(Via Lifelube)