Both New York City and San Francisco have seen small upticks in new HIV diagnoses, according to their latest annual epidemiology reports. In New York, 1,791 people were newly diagnosed in 2024, a 5.4% increase from 2023. In San Francisco, new diagnoses rose from an all-time low of 140 cases in 2023 to 146 cases in 2024, a 4.3% increase. (New York’s population of 8.5 million is about 10 times larger than San Francisco’s.)

 

Racial and ethnic disparities persist in both cities. In New York, 44% of newly diagnosed people were Black, and 41% were Latino. In San Francisco, Latino people accounted for the largest share of new diagnoses, at 32%, but Black people had the highest diagnosis rate relative to their small share of the population. Concerningly, San Francisco saw a near doubling of new diagnoses among cisgender women, from 14 to 26 cases. But still, gay and bisexual men account for a majority of new cases in both New York (65%) and San Francisco (83%).

 

Nationwide, the number of HIV diagnoses rose by about 1,000 in 2023, reaching 39,201, according to the CDC. New York and San Francisco were among the first cities hard hit by AIDS in the 1980s, and both have a well-established infrastructure for HIV surveillance, prevention, testing and care. But the epidemic has since shifted to the South, which now accounts for over half of new cases.

 

While these modest increases do not appear to herald a surge in new infections, they do show that progress toward ending the epidemic has stalled. Also, the latest numbers do not yet reflect the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV funding, which could lead to rising numbers in the future.