New York: If you're a white American woman, your risk of being diagnosed with HIV is pretty small, lower than the odds of dying in a car crash. If you're a gay black man, the chances of getting an HIV diagnosis are closer to a coin flip.

About 43 per cent of black men who have sex with men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes if the epidemic's current trends hold, according to research being presented on Tuesday by the Centres for Disease Control. For Hispanic men who have sex with men, the rate is 22 per cent. For white men who have sex with men, it's about 10 per cent.

A baby's blood is taken for a Dry Blood Spot (DBS) test - the most accurate way of determining if a baby is HIV positive or negative.

The latest report is a staggering reminder that gay men of colour bear the brunt of the HIV crisis. That fact has been evident for years in the data on HIV, but it has often gone unmentioned as public health campaigns focus on broad-based prevention strategies.