MIAMI: Actor Charlie Sheen’s announcement last year that he is HIV-positive led to a record number of Google searches for information about the virus that causes AIDS in the United States, researchers said Monday.

“Just as with celebrities Rock Hudson’s and Magic Johnson’s disclosures of their HIV-positive status, Sheen’s disclosure may be similarly reinvigorating awareness and prevention of HIV,” said the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.

Since Sheen’s announcement came only a few months ago — he revealed his status on NBC’s “Today” show on Nov. 17 — it is too early to say whether the hunt for information it inspired will translate into a drop in HIV diagnoses.

But researchers have found that Sheen’s news “corresponded with the greatest number of HIV-related Google searches ever recorded in the United States on a single day,” the report said.

“All searches regarding HIV were 417 percent higher than expected the day of Sheen’s disclosure.”