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Stigma plays a central role in the
South’s disproportionate HIV/AIDS burden, according to CDC. Though it comprises
just slightly more than one-third of the US population, the South has one-half
of all new HIV cases and the highest AIDS death rate.
HIV testing lags in the South, said
Carolyn McAllaster, director of the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative.
“We see sad cases here all the time
of people who present with blindness or meningitis or pneumonia, and that’s the
way they get diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. In an ideal world, they should have been
diagnosed years before that,” concurred J. Michael Kilby, professor of medicine
and chief of infectious diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Further, a significant number of
people who are diagnosed with HIV do not receive treatment. Southern patients
often live far from specialized HIV practices and lack transportation to get
there. One in four South Carolinians with HIV live in rural areas, as do four
in 10 HIV-positive Mississippians - by far the highest percentage in the United
States.
“HIV is clearly a disease of
poverty. And there is a lot of poverty in the South,” said Michael Saag,
director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of
Alabama-Birmingham.
Religion, homophobia, and a
hesitance to talk about sex or sexuality in the South also are factors,
particularly among African Americans. A 2011 study by the Florida Department of
Health estimated that one in five gay black men in that state were
HIV-infected. According to researchers, Southern blacks are especially likely
to see homosexuality as immoral.
“In the African-American community,
men who are gay are more likely to hide their sexual activity,” said Saag. “So
it’s more common for the virus to spread from gay men to heterosexual women.”
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!
