There has been a jump in newly diagnosed HIV cases among young gay men in Los Angeles, according to a report.
From 2001 to 2006, such cases among all gay males ages 13 to 24 rose by 12 percent, said the report published by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
The steepest increase was among young gay blacks -- up 15 percent, compared with 8 percent for young gay Latinos and 9 percent for young gay whites, according to the report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Wilbert C. Jordan, medical director of the OASIS Clinic at the Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center in Los Angeles, confirmed the increase on the ground, particularly in Southern Los Angeles, the paper said.
In the last 15 months, the HIV clinic has gone from treating one teenage patient to treating 47. This month the clinic will begin a program on Saturdays just for adolescents. Jordan expects to have 100 teenage patients before the end of the year.
Many of his patients are kids who got kicked out of their homes for being gay or experimenting with sex with another boy, Jordan said. So, he said, they went to West Hollywood, prostituted themselves for food, contracted HIV and now are back in South Los Angeles, infecting their friends.
"The first wave got infected outside of the community," he said. "The second wave are those getting infected in South-Central."
Source: Xinhua
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