HIV/AIDS surveillance data for New York City West Indian - Born Blacks: Comparisons with other immigrant and US-born groups

Objectives. Although the risk of HIV among New York City West Indian-born Black immigrants often is assumed to be high, population-based data are lacking, a gap we aimed to address. Methods. Using 2006-2007 HIV/AIDS surveillance data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and population data from the US Census American Community Survey 2007, we compared the rate of newly reported HIV diagnoses, prevalence of people living with HIV/AIDS, and distribution of transmission risk categories in West Indian-born Blacks, 2 other immigrant groups, and US-born Blacks and Whites. Results. The age-adjusted rate of newly reported HIV diagnoses for West Indian-born Blacks was 43.19 per 100 000 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.92, 49.10). This was higher than the rate among US-born Whites (19.96; 95% CI = 18.63, 21.37) and Dominican immigrants and lower than that among US-born Blacks (109.48; 95% CI = 105.02, 114.10) and Haitian immigrants. Heterosexual transmission was the largest risk category in West Indian-born Blacks, accounting for 41% of new diagnoses. Conclusions. Although much lower than in US-born Blacks, the rate of newly reported HIV diagnoses in West Indian-born Blacks exceeds that among US-born Whites. Additional work is needed to understand the migration-related sources of risk.