The number of Long Islanders with HIV or AIDS rose nearly 20% in 2022 compared to 2021, the region’s second consecutive year of a double digit uptick, with Black and Latino communities hit hardest, according to the state health department.
The 2022 HIV/AIDS Surveillance report, released Tuesday at the state’s eighth annual “Ending the Epidemic Summit” in Albany, shows that while the number of new HIV diagnoses cases statewide decreased by more than 40% in the past decade, they were up by more than 9% last year, from 2,123 in 2021 to 2,138. Statewide, new HIV cases ticked up by nearly 10%, the data shows.
Meanwhile, the number of new AIDS diagnoses statewide remained steady, from 1,056 in 2021 to 1,060 in 2022.
A pandemic-fueled spike
Experts attribute the increase in HIV infections to the lingering effects of the pandemic, when many health care facilities were closed.
“There was this huge drop off of diagnosis, and there’s definitely still some catching up from that,” said Dr. Joseph McGowan, medical director of Northwell Health’s HIV services. ” … We’re seeing this increased proportion of cases, especially among Hispanics. It may be there was a lack of access to testing as we were just getting going again in 2021 and 2022.”
The highest number of Nassau cases, McGowan said, were in Freeport, Hempstead, Hicksville and Westbury. In Suffolk, the most cases came from Bay Shore, Brentwood, Central Islip and Huntington Station.
Drop in city cases
Separately, the New York City Health Department released its 2022 HIV Surveillance report Tuesday, showing a 2% drop in new HIV cases in the past year. Both the city and state reports were timed for release ahead of World AIDS Day on Friday.
In total, more than 104,000 New Yorkers were living with HIV or AIDS in 2022, including nearly 5,300 on Long Island, the report found. If HIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. No effective cure currently exists but “with…
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