fear of rejection from the religious community. Careteam+, a South Carolina non-profit healthcare provider, tells WISTV.com that they’ve lately been able to refer 500 percent more patients to specialized care thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
With antiretroviral therapy, someone who is HIV-positive can keep the illness under control and reduce their risk of infecting others.
7. Baton Rouge, Louisiana – 25.7
Baton Rouge claimed the No. seven spot. It’s reported that many of the infections there “are due to shared needles since the city is the center of a massive opiate addiction issue.”
The CDC provides a list of steps you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones from HIV. Educate yourself by visiting the CDC website, talk about what you learn with friends and loved ones, and empower people by sharing your knowledge on social media.
Check out the related link below to find a testing center in your area. Testing early might result in a false-negative, so be sure to tell your testing site if you think you’ve been infected recently.
6. Memphis, Tennessee – 27.6
“A particularly concerning statistic from 2014 shows that about 2,000 people in Memphis who have the disease are not aware of it,” GetTested.com reports. “So they may continue to spread the infection.”
African-American gay and bisexual men are most affected by HIV, according to HIV.gov, followed by white gay and bisexual men. Heterosexual contact accounted for 24 percent of all diagnoses in 2015, and 6 percent of infections were the result of injection drug use.
5. Orlando, Florida – 28.8
According to the CDC, the rate of HIV diagnoses in Orlando decreased slightly (0.9 percent) from 2013 to 2015. New HIV infections appear to be declining globally as well. December 1 marked World AIDS Day and 40 years since AIDS was first discovered, according to AIDS.gov, “the vast majority of people living with HIV are in low and middle-income countries.”
Most people in these regions still don’t have access to prevention, treatment and care programs, and only 60 percent of the 36.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS know their status. Since the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief passed in 2003, the U.S. has spent more than $50 billion to test and treat people for HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, NPR reports. Other organizations, like U2 frontman Bono’s (RED), are targeting mainstream audiences to raise awareness around the issue.
4. Jackson, Mississippi – 32.2
GetTested.com reports that in Jackson, there is “a concerted effort to inform the public about the PrEP pill.” Did you know there’s a pill out there that can actually prevent you from becoming infected with HIV even if you have sex with someone who is HIV-positive?
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, a daily medication, can do just that, according to WhatisPrEP.org.
3. New Orleans, Louisiana – 36.9
An excess of 19,000 people in Louisiana are living with HIV. More than half of those people have AIDS. Although African Americans make up only 32 percent of the state population, they represented 73 percent of the state’s new cases in 2011, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
The LDH urges Louisianians to get tested. “If people with HIV have the virus diagnosed early, they are able to receive treatment and care early enough to delay the onset of AIDS,” LDH Office of Publish Health Assistant Secretary J.T. Lane says in a press release.
2. Miami, Florida – 42.8
In 2015, Miami had the highest rate of HIV diagnoses in the country. It also had the highest prevalence of the disease at the end of 2014, according to the CDC. It speculates that the city’s high HIV rates may be due to its culture.
So which city is number one? It may come as a surprise to some, but the number one city in the United States is…
1. Atlanta, Georgia – 44.9
Dangerous inequalities contribute to the AIDS epidemic in the South, where more than half of new HIV diagnoses in 2019 were reported. Half of those new cases were among Black people.
The latest data cited by Dr. Melanie Thompson show Black people make up 72% of new HIV diagnoses, and almost 10% of new cases are among Hispanic or Latino individuals.
“And only 16% being in white persons,” she said. “So the racial disparities are really stark here in Georgia.”
More than 1,000 people are diagnosed with HIV each year in Atlanta. What’s even more interesting is that 50 percent of those people aren’t diagnosed until they already have AIDS.
Within the first two to four weeks of infection, some people experience flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, rash, night sweats, and fatigue, according to HIV.gov.
Others don’t show any symptoms at all, and about one in eight Americans with HIV don’t know that they have it. The only way to know if you have AIDS is to get tested. There are tons of places you can go to do this, including Planned Parenthood, medical clinics, hospitals, and substance-abuse treatment programs.
So what cities are the ones with the LOWEST HIV rates?
According to the CDC, the prevalence of HIV within non-metropolitan districts of the U.S. runs at around 112.1 cases per 100,000. Of the 107 cities included in its 2015 report, only six fell beneath this threshold:
6. Boise, Idaho (71.7)
5. Rapid City, Michigan (100.1)
4. Fayetteville, Arkansas (108.8); Madison,