HIV Infections Increasing Among Navajo Tribe, Intensity in Impoverished Regions

An alarmingly high number of HIV infections have been reported on a Navajo reservation near Arizona. This brings a huge concern to public health workers who are alarmed that the virus that causes AIDS has resurfaced with renewed intensity in impoverished regions.

A report released last month by the federal Indian Health Service found that there were 47 new diagnoses of human immunodeficiency virus on the reservation in 2010, and up 20 percent from 2011. Since 1999, new HIV cases among Navajo are up nearly fivefold, the report found. The tally of new cases from last year represents the highest annual number recorded among the tribe by the health agency.

"I'm scared to death," said Dr. Jonathan Iralu, an infectious disease specialist who runs an HIV clinic near the Navajo area on the Arizona border, according to The New York Times. "The numbers show there is a dangerous rise, and the time to act is now, before it's too late."

In the period after that, Dr. Iralu, a Harvard-educated doctor who moved here from Boston, treated a small number of Navajo men with HIV,each year and lost nearly a third of them.

However, the stigma surrounding the community often prevents many who test positive from receiving treatment or telling loved ones for fear of negative judgment.

"H.I.V. in Indian country is very different than the rest of the world," said Dr. Susan V. Karol, the agency's chief medical officer, according to The New York Times. "Our communities are very small, and that can lead to people avoiding stigma, rather than getting the care they need."

HIV, otherwise known as the Human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that can lead to acquired immune  deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. CDC estimates that about 56,000 people in the United States contracted HIV in 2006.

"I'm afraid that if we wait too long," Dr. Iralu said, "it could turn into a true epidemic."