The latest data from the CDC, released to coincide with National HIV Testing Day on June 27, involved 281,421 people in 34 states with confidential name-based HIV reporting who tested positive for the virus between 1996 and 2005. The results indicated that, within one year of their HIV diagnosis, 38.3 percent of patients had received an AIDS diagnosis; another 6.7 percent received an AIDS diagnosis within one to three years after their HIV diagnosis.

The percentage of people with an AIDS diagnosis, reached within three years of their HIV diagnosis, was greater among those who were older. About 63 percent of men and women 60 years old or older progressed to AIDS within three years, compared with 23 percent of those 13 to 19 years old diagnosed with HIV.

Whites were the least likely to have an AIDS diagnosis three years after their initial HIV diagnosis. About 42 percent of white men and women newly diagnosed with HIV progressed to AIDS within three years, compared with 46 percent of African-American individuals, 48 percent of Hispanics or Latinos and 50 percent of Asians.

Fortunately, there has been a downward trend in the number of people progressing to AIDS within three years of their initial HIV diagnosis. According to the CDC, those who received an HIV diagnosis in 2003 were less likely (44.5 percent) to have an AIDS diagnosis three years later than people diagnosed with HIV in 1996 (49 percent). In addition, people who received an HIV diagnosis in 2005 were less likely (36.4 percent) to have an AIDS diagnosis one year later than people diagnosed with HIV in 1996 (43.2 percent).

“To reduce late testing for HIV infection,” the CDC authors concluded in an accompanying editorial, “health care providers should fully implement both routine and risk-based HIV testing, and local public health officials should continue educational efforts regarding the importance of early HIV testing.”