HIV Rates Higher Than Thought

The NYT and other outlets are reporting that the CDC is announcing a revision of the number of new cases of AIDS in the United States. For a decade, they've been reporting 40,000 new cases of AIDS a year, but many epidemiologists question this number as the method used to calculate the number has never been very clear to people outside the CDC. A significant revision will increase the number of AIDS cases by as much as 50%. This is not to say that there is an increase in incidence, only that there is a decrease in measurement error. But, if there had been an epidemic increase in AIDS incidence in the United States, it's not clear whether the old system would have picked it up or not.