More than 56,000 in US infected with AIDS each year

Washington: At least 56,000 people become infected with the AIDS virus every year in the United States - 40 per cent more than previous estimates.

A report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) stressed that actual infection rates have not risen but said better methods of measuring new diagnosed infections and then extrapolating this to the general population led to the fresh estimates.

"CDC's first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is - and has been - worse than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006," the CDC said in a statement.

"This figure is roughly 40 per cent higher than CDC's former estimate of 40,000 infections per year, which was based on limited data and less precise methods."

Globally, 33 million people are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and 2 million die of it each year.