World AIDS Day
New reports in China show HIV/AIDS cases have increased, while discrimination against those with the virus still remains. Reuters

The number of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases cases have seen a significant decline due to the improved medical care in New York city.

According to the data released as part of the Mayor's Management Report in an annual review of city agencies' operations on Friday, the number of AIDS cases has seen a significant decline in last eight years.

As per the new statistics, the number of adults newly diagnosed with HIV virus has dropped to 2,225 in 2011 FY, from 2,969 in the previous year.

According to the New York Times report, that total was 25 percent lower than the total in 2010.

The number is 47 percent lower than it was eight years ago, in 2003. Around 4,164 cases were diagnosed in 2003, and since then the graph is on decline.

The number of New Yorkers who died from AIDS has reduced from 1,073 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 to 933 in FY 2010 and new tuberculosis cases dropped from 895 in 2009 to 760 in FY 2010. The decline in the cases is the possible outcome of improved medical care and better treatment.

“It’s not that people are not infected” with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, it is that they are taking medications, they’re able to be more adherent, and treatment has become easier,” said Dr. Monica Sweeney to The New York Times. Dr. Sweeney is the assistant commissioner of the Bureau of H.I.V. Prevention and Control of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

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