While the HIV infection rate has remained level among whites, blacks are getting the disease at twice the rate they were in the 1980s and 1990s, according to researchers at the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference, held last week in Boston. The HIV infection rate among blacks has increased from 1 percent to 2 percent over the past decade, while just 0.2 percent of whites contract the disease. The overall infection rate in the U.S. increased from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent, researchers said.

"We just have a burgeoning epidemic in the African-American community that is not being dealt with effectively," said Terje Anderson, director of the National Association of People with AIDS. 

The conclusions were drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examinations Surveys; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers compared 1988-1994 data with findings from 1999-2002.

Susan Buchbinder, the top AIDS researcher for the city of San Francisco, said the findings demand a greater investment in addiction treatment; many people infected by HIV contract the disease by sharing dirty needles.

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