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AIDSVu, an online tool created by
Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health to illustrate US HIV
prevalence by location, recently released interactive mapping information for
the HIV infection rate in Memphis, Tenn. The new information, released as part
of AIDSVu’s annual update on National HIV Testing Day in June, added Memphis to
a list of 19 other cities with information available by ZIP code or census
tract.
AIDSVu is a free online system that
maps HIV prevalence in the United States at the national, state, and local
levels. Demographic filters include race/ethnicity, sex, and age as well as HIV
prevalence related to poverty, income, education, and lack of health insurance.
The maps identify areas throughout the United States with the highest HIV
rates, including metropolitan areas in the South and the Northeast, providing
an easy-to-understand visual account of areas that need more prevention and
testing and treatment services.
“Our National HIV/AIDS Strategy
calls for reducing new HIV infections by intensifying our efforts in HIV
prevention where the epidemic is most concentrated,” said Patrick S. Sullivan,
PhD, DVM, professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of
Public Health and AIDSVu’s principal researcher. “AIDSVu provides a roadmap to
identifying those high-prevalence areas of the HIV epidemic and showing where
the local testing resources are located. The addition of new city data means
that AIDSVu now displays data from 20 US cities, including Memphis.”
The project has an advisory
committee and advisory group represented by federal and state agencies as well
as nongovernmental HIV advocacy groups.
