Men who have sex with men still make up the majority of new HIV infections nationwide - 53%

Among them, black men between 13 and 29 had more new infections than any other group. With Hispanics, the most infections also occurred in this youngest age group. But among white men, the most new infections were found in those between 30 and 39. The CDC has designated HIV a crisis in African-American communities. While blacks account for 14% of the population in the United States, they make up almost half of Americans living with the HIV virus. In Tennessee, 645 black people were diagnosed with HIV in 2009, more than double the 300 white people newly diagnosed. Black men on the “down low,” who keep secret about having sex with other men, and the higher incarceration rate for black men are factors for the spread of the disease among African-American women. The HIV incidence rate for black women was nearly 15 times as high as that for white women and nearly four times as high as Hispanic women’s, according to a CDC report.