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Health officials are seeing a rise
in HIV cases in Jefferson County linked to risky sex and the many online and
mobile phone applications that facilitate it. The county’s HIV/AIDS population
grew by 16 percent from Dec. 31, 2007, and March 31 this year to 5,122
individuals, state Department of Public Health data show.
“At least 90 percent of the cases we
interview, when we ask who were their contacts ... they say, ‘Well, I went on
the Internet,’ ‘I went to a chat room’ or ‘I had an app that was on my phone,’”
said Lee Eakins, county disease investigation supervisor. The health department
has responded by creating a social networking database targeting apps linked to
risky sex.
More testing is critical to
preventing more infections, since 60 percent of new cases are linked to people
who do not realize they are HIV-positive, said Michael Saag, director of the
Center for AIDS Research and the Division of Infectious Diseases at the
University of Alabama-Birmingham.
“The rate of new infections ... is
roughly the same today as it was 20 years ago,” Saag said. “So we need every
way we can to stop transmission.” With treatment, the risk of people transmitting
HIV is cut significantly, “not 100 percent, but it’s darn close,” he said.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
