State reports decline in new HIV diagnoses

DES MOINES - New diagnoses of HIV among Iowans dropped 19 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to a report released Monday by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The health department says that may be linked to a statewide comprehensive plan launched in 2011.

Last year, 99 Iowans were diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. That's the fewest since 2003, when 88 cases were reported, the health department noted.

The department also specifically cited a decrease in diagnoses among females, from 28 percent to 20 percent, during that period.

Moreover, the disparity among minorities, historically overrepresented in HIV diagnoses, dropped - down from 21 percent of the population in 2013 to 12 percent in 2014.

The majority of Iowans diagnosed with HIV last year were white, non-Hispanic males, the health department said.

The goals of the department's comprehensive HIV plan have included quickly finding care for newly diagnosed individuals, keeping them in a treatment program and increasing the number of diagnosed individuals with a suppressed amount of virus in their blood.

At present, Iowa is reporting 68 percent of HIV-infected individuals whose viral loads have been effectively suppressed, compared with rough estimates around 40 percent from other states.

'We are beginning to see the value of the great work that has been done since the development of that plan,” Randy Mayer, chief of the Bureau of HIV, STD and Hepatitis, said in a prepared statement. 'Although we need more time to ensure this trend continues, many indicators are pointing in the right direction.”