Krissie Guerard
A new report shows H-I-V cases increased by 24-percent among Minnesota 20-to-29 year olds. Krissie Guerard is with the state Department of Health and says “we had a 108 new cases in 2015 compared to 87 cases in 2014. She says “the cases were concentrated in the Twin Cities metro area and higher rates occurred among communities of color and men who have sex with men.”
Guerard says the number of cases among injection drug users (IDU) was up 86-percent. “We only had 14 cases in 2014 and now we have 26 cases in 2015. IDU cases occurred more often with white non-Hispanic males, between the ages of 20 and 39. She says however, “keep in mind, since the numbers are so small the percentage increase obviously looks very large.”
There were 294 newly reported HIV/AIDS cases reported in 2015, about the same as 2014. 58 percent of newly reported HIV cases were people of color. Among females, more than half of all new cases were African-born. Among males, more than one-fourth of all new cases were African-American, Non-Hispanic men.
An estimated 8,215 people in the state are living with HIV/AIDS.
The full report can be found here: HIV/AIDS Surveillance