New data indicates that in 2007, Minnesota’s rate of new HIV infections reached its highest point since the mid-’90s with 325 new cases recorded, the online news service The Earth Times/Business Wire reports (earthtimes.org, 4/15).

According to the article, 30 percent of Minnesota’s new HIV cases are among people under the age of 29, which the Minnesota AIDS Project attributes to a lack of youth education about transmission risk, as well as the notion that HIV is now a manageable disease.

“With more Minnesotans than ever before living with HIV, we need to work and establish a statewide commitment to basic education about this disease for all our citizens,” said Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project. “We need to get back to [the] basics.”

The article also notes that as of December 31, 2007, 5,950 people were known to be living with the virus in the state, representing a 30 percent increase since 2002 and an 81 percent increase since 1997.