Thursday, September 27, marks National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NGMHAAD) 2018.

This year’s theme is “The Conversation About HIV Is Changing.” This is a reference to the tools we have to end the epidemic in the United States, including treatment and prevention. Notably, we now know that people with HIV who take meds and maintain an undetectable viral load cannot pass HIV sexually to their partners, a concept known as “Undetectable = Untransmittable,” or “U=U.” In addition, gay and bi men who are HIV negative but at risk of contracting the virus can take the daily med Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and reduce their risk by 99 percent or more.

A sample of the posters and infographics for NGMHAADCourtesy of CDC.gov

To promote NGMHAAD, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created several posters and infographics in both English and Spanish that are perfect for sharing on social media. For those resources, including suggested tweets, click here.

Gay and bisexual men continue to be the population most affected by the epidemic in the United States. In fact, in 2016, these men accounted for 67 percent of the 40,324 new HIV cases in the United States and six dependent areas (including Puerto Rico and Guam), according to the latest figures available from the CDC. What’s more, African-American gay and bi men are the group most affected by HIV in the nation.

You can learn the POZ Basics about prevention, including PrEP, here. And check out our hashtags #PrEP and #Undetectable.

Here are more statistics from the CDC about gay and bi men in the United States:

  • Gay and bisexual men ages 13 to 34 account for two thirds (64 percent) of HIV diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men. But the age distribution varies by race/ethnicity.

  • Among all gay and bisexual men who received an HIV diagnosis in the United States and six dependent areas, African Americans accounted for the highest number (10,226; 38 percent), followed by Latinos (7,689; 29 percent) and whites (7,392; 28 percent). Other races/ethnicities accounted for 1,537 (6 percent) diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.

  • An estimated 632,300 gay and bisexual men had HIV at the end of 2015, representing 56 percent of everyone with HIV.

  • By race and ethnicity, 240,900 were white, 201,800 were African American, 151,200 were Latino and 38,400 were other races/ethnicities.

  • An estimated 83 percent (526,456) of gay and bisexual men were aware of their infection at the end of 2015.

  • Among all gay and bisexual men with HIV in 2015, 62 percent received some HIV medical care, 48 percent were retained in HIV care and 52 percent had a suppressed viral load.

For more data and infographics specifically about Black gay and bi men, click here.