U.S. AIDS cases cluster in cities, report finds

Most Americans infected with the AIDS virus live in cities, with 10 states accounting for 71 percent of cases, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC breakdown shows that 85 percent of all reported cases of HIV infection were in large U.S. metropolitan areas, up from 82 percent in 2007.

By the end of 2007, a total of 1,051,875 people were infected with the AIDS virus since it was identified in the early 1980s, the CDC found. That included 37,041 new cases in 2007.

U.S. federal funding to fight HIV totaled $23.3 billion in 2008, the CDC said. Fifty percent went for care of U.S. patients, 12 percent for research, 10 percent for cash and housing assistance, 4 percent for prevention and 25 percent for help in other countries.

Last year the CDC reported on its new way of calculating HIV infection rates and said that 56,300 people became newly infected in the United States in 2006.

Nearly half, 48 percent, were men who have sex with other men.

Globally, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS had infected 33 million people and has killed 25 million.

There is no cure for the virus, which is transmitted in blood, semen and breast milk. Cocktails of drugs can help control the infection and keep patients healthy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)