ACT Ride flyers are appearing all over Madison. AIDS Network poses the question, “Why Ride”? in the flyer and gives the following answer:

As one of Wisconsin two AIDS Service Organizations you would think that AIDS Network would at least get the numbers correct:

There were not 56,300 “new persons diagnosed with AIDS in 2008″. According to the CDC there were approximately 56,300 newly reported HIV infections in 2008. AIDS Network should know this basic piece of AIDS epidemiology. There is a difference between an AIDS diagnosis and HIV transmissions. There is no excuse for this sloppy and inaccurate piece of ACT ride propaganda. (as a side note, the percentages don’t compute–they add up to 101 percent)

AIDS Network’s focus on national statistics is worrisome, as well. What about Wisconsin? What about reporting these truths:

• 443 new cases of HIV infection were reported in 2009.

• 10,765 cases have been reported since 1983

• Two-thirds (7,232) of these cases are classified as
AIDS, and one-third (3,533) as non-AIDS.

• 6,971 persons with HIV infection were presumed to be alive at the end of 2009.

Newly reported HIV Cases were:

• 46 percent white
• 37 percent African American
• 13 percent Hispanic
• 1 percent American Indian
• 2 percent Asian Pacific/Islander
• 1 percent multi-racial

79 percent of 2009′s reported HIV cases are male; 21 percent female

Sixty-nine deaths among persons reported with HIV infection in Wisconsin are known to have occurred in 2008;

Closer to home in the Madison area:
• 54 cases were reported in 2009
• Males comprised 76% of cases reported in 2009
• Case rates per 100,000 for African Americans in this area are substantially higher than those elsewhere in the state
• Persons ages 15-24 made up 17% of cases reported in 2009

Instead of reporting on Wisconsin’s recent HIV/AIDS epidemiological data, AIDS Network and the ACT Ride Steering Committee Googled some old CDC data and interpreted the numbers incorrectly and passed it off as the answer to the question “Why ride?”