By Mike Benjamin
Oswego, NY – Health officials are joining AIDS activists to address a recent spike in HIV cases in Central New York.
Onondaga County Health Commissioner, Dr. Cynthia Morrow said there have been nine newly diagnosed cases of HIV in her county in the past four months. All of the recent cases involve young gay men. Officials point out there is no indication the men knew each other.
Ivan Thomas represents the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS of Syracuse. He said the outbreak is especially disturbing because Central New York does not typically see as many HIV cases as some other parts of the country.
"We have under 1,000 cases which in most areas may not cause a lot of alarm but the thing is we definitely want to work to stop this before it gets worse. Typically in urban, poor areas HIV and AIDS does has the ability to run rampant, due to the lack of education and the lack of services," said Thomas.
Health officials are investigating the cause of the outbreak. Thomas said one likely cause is people engaging in risky sexual behavior.