National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Georgia ranked 5th among the 50 states in 2007 for total number of new HIV infections, with gay and bisexual men accounting for more than half of new diagnoses.

New infection rates in that population continue to increase.

That's why on Monday's "National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day," health officials are encouraging gay men to get an HIV test.

Although careful neither to stigmatize nor frame HIV as a virus only affecting gay men, Jeffrey Crowley, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, said the AIDS epidemic continues to hit that group the hardest.

"We see large numbers of annual infections," he said Friday in Atlanta. "We see very high relative risks compared to other groups, and most disturbing of all, unlike other groups, we see rising infection rates."

In a recent CDC study involving 21-major US cities, one in five gay men was HIV positive. Most were unaware of their status.

Jim Burress, WABE News


For more information on Atlanta-area events for National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, click here


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