Though the rate of HIV/AIDS in Utah continues to grow, there's a new attitude brewing among locals who are most at risk: "Don't talk to me about safe sex anymore."

Lynn Beltran, HIV and sexually transmitted disease program manager at the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, said HIV rates in Salt Lake County have been on the rise for the past three to five years. "We're still seeing an increase thus far this year," she said, and she expects by the end of the year to see 100 to 120 new cases in Salt Lake County alone during 2009.

The trend seems to be playing out around the state, as well. Figures released in late September by the Utah Department of Health show 106 people statewide tested positive for HIV in 2008, compared to 91 in 2007.

Why the increase, after years of public dialogue?

Beltran said that even as people were being tested recently as part of national Latino AIDS Awareness Day, the disease "is not on people's radar screen anymore. We have lots of it occurring in the younger community."

"When we talk with them about it, they're not even aware of HIV, because they were not around when the epidemic first took hold and people were dying. They think there's a cure, and there isn't."

Though there are now effective medications to stave off people dying, "you still have to live with it the rest of your life," she said. Recent freezes in funding to provide medication to those with HIV/AIDS have occurred, "and those medications are not accessible to everyone anymore."

Not only is the disease on the rise, the age at which people are contracting it in Salt Lake County is dropping. While it used to be that the age group most affected was gay men and drug users in their early to mid-40s, she's seen the average drop into the 30s, with more frequent positives in the early to mid 20s, and one person this year who was diagnosed before age 18.

When the disease first began devastating the gay community in the late '80s and early '90s, "the community rallied to protect itself, and the attitudes were about protection," Beltran said.

"We've seen a complete paradigm shift," she said. "Now, the attitudes really are 'Don't talk to me about safe sex anymore — I just don't need to hear about it.' "

The other thing officials are finding among older people most likely to be exposed is, "We've heard it all. I'm just kind of waiting to get HIV now," she said.

And because the disease doesn't mean a relatively quick death sentence like it once did, and the pool of people who have it is growing, those who are infected continue to infect others.

"They're less likely to disclose their HIV status than they were five to 10 years ago. They don't feel the same moral obligation they felt in the 1990s. And that means anyone who is sexually active needs to be aware of the risk and informed about protecting themselves," Beltran said. The attitude, and the consequent increase in disease, is reflected nationwide.

Those who are newly diagnosed "always think they will be the one that isn't infected, but when we do have to give them that positive result, it's devastating," she said. "You can't turn back what has happened."

e-mail: carrie@desnews.com