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Friday, January 23rd, 2015

The Deep South Is Being Hit Hard by HIV/AIDS

Author:     Colleen Curry
Source:     Vice News
Publication Date:     January 21, 2015 | 2:14 am
 Link: The Deep South Is Being Hit Hard by HIV/AIDS
Stephan:   By almost any standard one cares to use, the Red value states of the old confederacy are unhealthy places to live. People have shorter life spans in those states. Infant mortality is, well, mortal. Am I exaggerating: A child born in rural North Carolina for instance, has less of a chance of living to age two than a child born in Botswana Africa. Sexually Transmitted Diseases are higher in the South. Teen pregnancies are higher than in Blue value states. Now data tells us this same skew is true about HIV/AIDS. All of this is the result of the Theocratic Right's social choices that create ignorance and poverty, and that undermine any social safety network.

Chinese students show a handmade red ribThe Deep South has the highest death rate of newly diagnosed AIDS cases in the country, according to new research which analyzes the growing epidemic in the region and seeks to articulate its causes, which include social stigma, rural geography, and poverty. (emphasis added)

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and the Centers for Disease Control worked together to analyze the diagnosis and death rates of HIV and AIDS patients in nine “target” states in the Deep South, including: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Those states now account for 49 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS, despite making up just 37 percent of the national population, (emphasis added) according to the research published in the Journal of Community Health. Researchers also found the region has the lowest five-year survival rate for new AIDS diagnoses in the country; nearly a third of those diagnosed with AIDS in 2003-04 died within five years of being told they were infected.

Susan Reif, of the Duke University Global Health Institute, told […]

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