The BAR (where one can now - at last! - comment on articles) says that HIV infections in San Francisco are now in "retreat." Over the last decade, the rate of new HIV cases has dwindled. Significantly so! Check it out:

Ten years ago the city estimated that more than 1,000 people would become infected with HIV, the large majority of whom were gay and bisexual men. Now San Francisco health researchers estimate there are 736 new HIV infections each year, according to the latest HIV Consensus Estimates.

The number could actually be as low as 621 new HIV cases per year. Due to statistical uncertainty, researchers in the city's Department of Public Health Epidemiology Section advise that the "plausibility bounds" for new infections range from 534 cases at the low end to 977 cases at the upper end.

Right now, San Francisco's "HIV incidence" rate is at 0.09 percent, "a 30.8 percent reduction in the rate since 2006."

If you have yet to do so, you can get free confidential and anonymous HIV/STD testing at: Magnet (4122 18th Street), in the Stop AIDS RV (location, times), San Francisco City Clinic (356 7th Street), Out of the Closet (100 Church, 1498 Polk), and Glide (330 Ellis), just to name a few.

The BAR goes on to say that "the number of people living with HIV in San Francisco is now believed to be 18,576, which results in an HIV prevalence rate of 2.27 percent."

[BAR]