HIV (Lack of) Awareness

This CDC report says that of 1.2 million Americans with HIV, 240,000 don't know they're infected. Of every 100 people with HIV, 80 know they have it, 62 are linked to HIV care, 41 stay in care, 36 get antiretroviral therapy, and 28 have their viral loads well controlled. We're used to saying, glibly, that in the US HIV used to be a death sentence, but now it's only a chronic illness. But the fact is that we need to do a lot better on testing and treatment. 16,000 per year are still dying of AIDS--not a large number, as causes of death go (AIDS has been outside the top 15 causes of death since 1997); but AIDS is still a leading cause of death in certain sub-populations, e.g., among younger women and African-Americans. We can do better.