CDC: More than a million Americans now living with HIV

ATLANTA (AP) Government officials said today that more than a (m) million Americans are believed to be living with the virus that causes AIDS.

The latest estimate is both good and bad news -- reflecting the success of drugs that keep more people alive and the failure of the government to ``break the back'' of the AIDS epidemic by its stated goal of 2005.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that between one (m) million, 39 thousand and one (m) million, 185-thousand people in the United States were living with H-I-V in December 2003.

The previous estimate from 2002 showed that between 850-thousand and 950-thousand people had the AIDS virus.

C-D-C officials previously have said the country's HIV infection rate has been ``relatively stable'' and without change. The National H-I-V Prevention Conference is set to begin this week. Officials say no new infection date will be available until next year.

On the Net:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

University of California-San Francisco Center for HIV Information: http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu

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