Diagnoses of HIV Infection by Transmission Category

Transmission Category of HIV Infection

 

Six common transmission categories are male-to-male sexual contact, injection drug use, male-to-male sexual contact and injection drug use, hetero sexual contact, mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission, and other (includes blood transfusions and unknown cause).

Following is the distribution of the estimated number of diagnoses of HIV infection among adults and adolescents in the 37 states with confidential name-based HIV infection reporting, by transmission category. A breakdown by sex is provided where appropriate.

Transmission Category	Estimated Number of Diagnoses of HIV Infection, 2008
	Adult and Adolescent Males	Adult and Adolescent Females	Total
Male-to-male sexual contact	22,469	-	22,469
Injection drug use	2,539	1,571	4,110
Male-to-male sexual contact and injection drug use	1,141	-	1,141
Heterosexual contact*	4,496	8,684	13,180
Other**	110	77	187

Heterosexual contact with a person known to have, or to be at high risk for, HIV infection. Includes hemophilia, blood transfusion, perinatal exposure, and risk not reported or not identified.

The distribution of the estimated number of diagnoses of HIV infection among children in the 37 states with confidential name-based HIV infection reporting, by transmission category, follows:

Transmission Category	Estimated Number of Diagnoses of HIV Infection, 2008
Perinatal	141
Other**	41

The term "children" refers to persons under age 13 years at the time of diagnosis. Includes hemophilia, blood transfusion, and risk not reported or not identified.