HIV infection rate virtually unchanged in Minn.
HIV/AIDS cases dropped 4 percent in Minnesota last year - a change state health officials say is statistically insignificant.
There were 301 new HIV diagnoses reported in 2013. That's down slightly from 314 in 2012.
Krissie Guerard, HIV/STD section manager at the Minnesota Department of Health, said nearly a third of the new cases were among people in their twenties.
But the health department's data contained some good news. Guerard noted there were no new cases of HIV among infants last year. That was "due to mothers going in for prenatal treatment and getting on medication during their pregnancy," she said. "Also having the children put on treatment once they're born. It has virtually eliminated that transmission. It's great."
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Bill Tiedemann of the Minnesota AIDS Project said he'd hoped to see a much larger drop in the overall HIV infection rate.
Besides avoiding risky behavior, treatment for HIV is the best way to avoid spreading it, advocates and health department officials say.
"If they are adherent to their medications and they have an undetectable viral load the likelihood of transmission drops to approximately 4 percent," Tiedemann said.
The group most likely to contract HIV is still men who have sex with men.
The state health department said recent increases in the rates of other sexually transmitted infections could lead to an increase in HIV rates.
Incidents of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in the state all increased last year.