How many people will you infect with HIV in 2009?

via Ickaprick and Ironpussy (our new fav blog)

Of all the people living with HIV in North America (1.1 million in the US and 58,000 in Canada), how many of them will transmit the virus to somebody new in 2009? Or, put another way: what percentage of poz people will hit New Year's Eve 2009 and say with confidence, "HIV ends with me. I did not infect any sexual partners this year"?

The answer is important for lots of reasons (like measuring the efficacy of prevention efforts), but one stands out more than others. Tracking transmission rates holds the key to proving or debunking the wide-spread belief that HIV+ people are reckless, selfish assholes who don't care very much if they infect other people or not.

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