HIV/ AIDS atlas maps the Southeast

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

News HIV/ AIDS atlas maps the Southeast

Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 11:44 AM

To travel the HIV/ AIDS Atlas, you'll need to register -- name, e-mail address and a password, but don't expect any e-mail or spam to follow.

Once you've logged in, select the state and county you're interested in viewing. Then, in the upper right-hand corner, choose disease and demographic information.

What you'll find is that 104-247 out of every 100,000 Mecklenburg residents have AIDS and about as many people have HIV, that men are more likely than women to have either and the county hosts more residents with HIV or AIDS than most of the surrounding counties.

But, it's no wonder. Since this is the county armed with more public transportation options and doctors, it shouldn't be a surprise that those suffering with HIV/AIDS come here for treatment.

The Southeast is among the areas of the United States with the highest concentration of cases of HIV and AIDS, according to a new online tool called the National HIV/AIDS Atlas.

AIDS experts in the region say that access to health care, especially when it comes to screening, is a major problem in rural communities.

In the Southeast, people with HIV tend to get tested late, after they have become sick, partly because of stigma, said Kathie Hiers, executive director of AIDS Alabama in Birmingham.

"If you look at access to health care and almost any kind of health care report card, the South is the worst," she said.

With little or no public transportation, people in non-metropolitan areas are at a disadvantage when they need to see a particular kind of doctor, experts say. There is also a shortage of doctors who deal with HIV in the region, Hiers said.