AIDS 2008, Monday August 4

On Monday, I presented a paper on Deaf HIV infection rates in the United States. Only the state of Maryland keeps any figures on infection rates and those point to an epidemic being ignored by the larger public health authorities in the US including the Centers for Disease Control (the CDC). Deaf people consistently test HIV+ at about double the rate for hearing people.

Table 1
Maryland 2003, 2005, 2006 & 2007 Public HIV Testing Results

Year/ % HIV+
Pre-2000 Deaf 4.3%

2003 Deaf 4.5% Not Deaf 2.1%

2005* Deaf 3.3% Not Deaf 1.7%
2006** Deaf 2.4% Not Deaf 1.3%
2007** Deaf 3.5% Not Deaf 1.2%

These figures were from Maryland Public Testing Sites only, other testing sites in Maryland do not record information on hearing status.
* No figures were available for 2000-2002 and 2004
** Positive Percentages from 2006 and 2007 include both preliminary and confirmed positives
(Chart adapted from figures from HRSA 2001, Monaghan 2006 and from new information provided by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, July 2007 and July 2008).
For more complete figures, write hivdeaf at gmail dot com.