Thursday, July 14, 2011

THE REAL DIRTY SOUTH


(USA TODAY)Nearly all U.S. counties with both high rates of HIV infection and poverty are in southern states. According to a USA TODAY analysis of data from 43 states of a study by Emory University's AIDSvu project, this is the clearest picture yet of the close kinship of low income and HIV/AIDS.
The analysis highlights avast geographic shift in the HIV epidemic in the USA in the three decades since the first cases of the deadly disease were reported in gay men by the CDC in 1981.
The analysis identified 175 counties that rank among the top 205 for both HIV and poverty.

Harold Henderson, an HIV expert at the University of Mississippi, says southern states suffer from a host of health issues,including HIV,for reasons that extend from poverty to a lack of education and fragile families.
"The age when kids become sexually active is pretty young in the deep south", he says."That has a lot to do with parent's not doing a good enough job educating their kids about sex.
Seven states-Alaska,Idaho,North Dakota,Ohio,South Dakota,Vermont,and West Virginia, did not share their HIV data.


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