The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) updated HIV surveillance data shows an epidemic that is increasingly under control. People are living longer with the virus and are less often diagnosed with AIDS, and, overall, diagnoses are dropping.

Nevertheless, the epidemic is still defined by disparities based on age, race, sexual orientation and region, among other factors.

The CDC’s new HIV Surveillance Report includes data through the end of 2015. However, the assessment of recent trends includes only data from 2010 to 2014. Due to a six-month reporting delay, the 2015 data is preliminary and thus may not account for all recent HIV diagnoses.

The CDC analyses look at diagnoses rather than estimated transmissions of the virus. Variations in HIV testing rates may affect diagnosis rates.

The CDC found that per 100,000 people, the rate of new HIV diagnoses in 2015 was: 24.4 for men and 5.4 for women; 44.3 for Blacks, 16.4 for Latinos, 12.2 for mixed-race individuals and 5.3 for whites; and 16.8 in the South, 11.6 in the Northeast, 9.8 in the West and 7.6 in the Midwest.

At the end of 2014, 955,081 U.S. residents were living with diagnosed HIV (this figure does not represent those who do not know they have the virus)—the largest figure ever. Forty-two percent were African American. About 70 percent of those living with and newly diagnosed with HIV were men who have sex with men (MSM).

Among men, sex between men accounted for more than 26,000 of the new diagnoses in 2015; about 3,000 diagnoses occurred among those who contracted the virus through heterosexual sex; and 1,400 were among those whose transmission risk was injection drug use. Looking at women, the CDC found that almost 6,400 of those newly diagnosed had heterosexual sex as their primary risk factor, while 980 had injection drug use as their primary risk factor.

Between 2010 and 2014, the numbers and rates of HIV diagnoses dropped overall. However, they increased among those between the ages of 25 to 29, remained stable among those between 20 and 25 and decreased in all other age groups. Twenty-five- to 29-year-olds also had the highest diagnosis rate among all age brackets.

The number of diagnoses resulting from heterosexual sex or injection drug use declined while those resulting from sex between men remained stable.

The rate and number of those diagnosed with AIDS also fell, as did the number and rate of deaths due to any cause among those diagnosed with HIV.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the surveillance report, click here.