World News and Trends: U.S. AIDS infection rates on the rise again?
Twenty years after AIDS was identified as the source of an epidemic that claimed the lives of many homosexual men, a new generation of males is contracting the HIV infection at an alarming rate.
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4.4 percent of U.S. men aged 23-29 who admitted having sex with other men became infected with HIV each year between 1998 and 2000. Infection rates varied drastically by race, with a 2.5 percent annual infection rate among whites, 3.5 percent among Hispanics and 14.7 percent among blacks. Linda Valleroy, senior author of the six-state study, likened the higher infection rate to "what's been seen in eastern and southern Africa."
"That rate means that of 100 men who are healthy at the start of a year, 15 will end up infected," Dr. Valleroy said. "These are explosive HIV incidence rates that we haven't seen since the early '90s."
Although the study is too small to indicate a national trend, "I think it gives a very good picture of what potentially could be happening in other parts of the country," said Helene Gayle, director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.
In the 20 years since AIDS was identified, an estimated 21.8 million people have died from the disease—including three million last year—and 36 million are believed to be infected.
More than five million people—an average of 15,000 daily— are infected each year. More than 30 experimental AIDS vaccines have been tested in humans, but none has been found effective. Margaret McCluskey, head of a vaccine study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and vaccine manufacturer VaxGen, said: "Most public health professionals agree that unless we find a definitive vaccine, which is questionable, we may not see an end to the pandemic in our lifetime. Not just an end to it. We may not even be able to control it." Even optimistic researchers caution that an effective vaccine, if it can be developed, is probably a decade away. (Source: Scripps Howard News Service, The New York Times.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: July - August 2001
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
