Changes In Demographics and Risk Factors Among Persons Living With HIV In an Academic Medical Center From 2003-2007

National epidemiological data indicate that the HIV epidemic in the United States has been continually changing since its ini-tial recognition in 1981. There has been no decrease in the incidence of HIV infec-tion in the US for over a decade, and over 55,400 individuals were newly infected with HIV in the US in 2007.1 Of these new infections, 62 % contracted their infection through sex with other men (MSM) com-pared with 44 % a decade ago.2-3 Gradual annual increases in the proportion of inci-dent infections in women in the US have been observed for the past 15 years, with the great majority acquired via heterosexual contact.2 During this period, the number of HIV infections attributable to injection drug use (IDU) for both men and women dramatically declined, with estimates of a 42 % overall reduction between 1994 and 2000 4 and continued decreases in many areas through 2007.5 There has been no significant improvement in the early diag-nosis of HIV among newly infected indi-viduals, either nationally or in Rhode Is-land, since the 1990s.