CDC says 1.1 million Americans infected with HIV

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new estimate of how many Americans have the AIDS virus puts the number at about 1.1 million, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

The CDC numbers, based on 2006 data, show the population living with HIV is growing as people become newly infected and as more patients survive thanks to HIV drugs.

The report also suggests that past estimates that more than 1 million Americans were living with HIV overstated the actual total number of people with HIV infections at the time.

The agency used different methods than it has in the past to calculate the number. Its most recent nationwide estimate of 1 million had been given for 2003, and using the new methods the CDC figured that 994,000 were living with HIV that year.

"These data really show the continued impact that the epidemic is having on Americans, and they really reinforce the severe toll that is experienced in multiple communities," the CDC's Richard Wolitski said in a telephone interview.

The CDC report reinforced previous findings that the epidemic disproportionately affects blacks of both sexes as well as gay and bisexual men.

As the number of people living with HIV grows, so does the cost of providing medical services to this population and the burden on the U.S. health care system, Wolitski said.

The CDC estimated that about one in five -- 232,700 of the 1.1 million people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS -- did not know they were infected. The total U.S. population is 300 million.