DEEP SOUTH LEADS NATION IN CASES, NOT IN FUNDING
A startling new report to be released Monday shows that the Deep South leads the nation in both HIV infections and AIDS deaths, but ranks last of four regions in overall federal funding.
The Southern AIDS Coalition found that HIV infections in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Carolinas are spreading faster than any other states in the U.S., spurred largely by rural areas home to impoverished blacks facing overwhelming health and social problems.
SAC Report Findings
• Throughout the rest of the country from 2001 to 2005, the number of deaths from AIDS decreased, but continued to increase in the South;
• Of the 15 states with the highest rates of new HIV infections, nine (60%) are in the South. Additionally, of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest AIDS case rates in 2006, 16 (80%) are in the South. The South leads the nation in AIDS cases and rates in cities of all sizes;
• Over half (52%) of blacks living with AIDS and 58% of new AIDS cases reported in 2006 among blacks occurred in the South; yet blacks represent approximately 19% of the South’s population;
• The South has the highest number of adults and adolescents living with and dying from AIDS in the
United States. Through 2006, 52% of the reported, estimated, living HIV cases, and 41% of the reported, estimated living AIDS cases were from the South; and
• Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS are further complicated by the high prevalence of HIV-infected individuals living in rural areas. Southern states comprise 65% of all AIDS cases among rural populations.
[The report] says federal funding to fight the disease has not followed the epidemic’s path, with an unfair share of money for treatment, education and support services remaining in other, wealthier parts of the nation that have fewer new HIV cases and declining death rates.
“Rising infection rates coupled with inadequate funding, resources and infrastructure have resulted in a catastrophic situation in our public health care systems in the South,” the report says. “Unless we act to correct funding and treatment disparities, we endanger not just isolated communities, but our states and our nation.”
Kathy Hiers, chief executive officer of AIDS Alabama and co-author of the report, said HIV/AIDS has settled into remote areas of the South inhabited by black people who are at great risk for infection. “The ruralness of the epidemic is what’s becoming painfully clear,” Hiers said.
The report notes that the number of deaths from AIDS decreased in the rest of the nation 2001-05, but continued to rise in the South. During that period, more than 190,000 Southerners died from AIDS. [DAVE PARKS - Birmingham (Ala.) News]
The report notes that South Carolina eliminated the waiting list for more than 500 persons in need of HIV medications through the AIDS drug assistance program, thanks to collaborative efforts to increase state and federal funds.
The state’s HIV/AIDS Council’s Project F.A.I.T.H. (Fostering AIDS Initiatives That Heal) has done a lot to eliminate stigma and strengthen the ability of churches to create local solutions. That organization now funds 30 multi-denominational, faith-based entities across South Carolina.
But although we have made great strides over the last few years, this report show we have a long way to go in winning the war on AIDS. And it comes less than a week after our own Sen. Jim DeMint lost his bid to limit President Bush’s AIDS funding in the federal budget.
Hopefully, this disheartening report will jar enough people to make a difference.
Sphere: Related ContentThis entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Around the state. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Around 1983, SCDHEC told health care workers in SC that we did not have Aids in this state. They also introduced universal precautions and told health care workers, it’d be a good idea to use gloves . Next thing you know, SC is number eight nationally in the number of cases.
Down around West Palm Beach Florida ,the number of Aids cases grew substantially in the early 90’s in the retirement communities. The CDC and NIH established a program to teach seniors that they too could get Aids and needed to use prevention.
There is a group of caucasians, with genetic links back to the Black Plague that supposedly have a natural immunity to Aids.
And there are other diseases just as dangerous to one’s health that never get discussed in South Carolina, guess why??? WE DON”T HAVE EM HERE LOL
Will SCDHEC ever get it?