In 2017, more than 16,000 people died of HIV, and about 5,500 of those deaths were due to HIV-related causes, making the virus one of the top 10 leading causes of death in some groups.
“There’s still a long way to go,” said Karin Bosch, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study.
The sooner the diagnosis is made, the sooner people can get ongoing care and treatment and suppress the virus in their body, said Dr. Bosch. For example, younger people are more likely to die from HIV than older people because younger people are less likely to have continued access to care because they lack health insurance or do not receive regular care.
“This is relevant, because HIV is death prevention,” said Dr. Bosch said.
Other experts say the lack of improvement in deaths from other causes is of particular concern to women and substance users.
“It really speaks to the things we think we do in public health – functionality and community engagement,” said Dr. Eileen Scully, an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins University. “And in the same way there has been no epidemic among women in the United States.”
Unlike gay men, he said, women living with HIV “come from many different areas of life” and are often disconnected from the support network. “We still have a lot of work to do, to build trust in both and to bring minority women in particular into the health care system in a way that makes them feel safe and supported.”
Races also played an outsisable role in HIV deaths, with blacks or people of many races having the highest rates.
Mar. Mazz Razo compared the high numbers in the American South to the “Global South” – sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in resource-poor countries that face stigma and opaque sexual network issues, especially among gay black men.
