MapHIV.org Shows 18% of Georgia's Counties are Seriously Impacted by HIV

/PRNewswire/ -- The National Minority Quality Forum today launched a groundbreaking HIV/AIDS Atlas (http://www.maphiv.org/) that highlights the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in communities across the United States. The Atlas makes information on HIV/AIDS prevalence rates available in a single location for the first time, painting a comprehensive picture of the varying intensity of the epidemic across the country.

Georgia has 20 counties with AIDS prevalence rates of 0.248 percent or greater, according to the Atlas, and 25 counties with HIV (non-AIDS) prevalence rates of 0.38 percent or greater. These counties are placed in the red or dark red zones depicted on the Atlas, indicating they are among the counties with the highest prevalence rates in the United States.

The HIV/AIDS Atlas is being released in advance of National HIV Testing Day (June 27), to highlight the growing need for increased HIV screening efforts in communities that are suffering disproportionately from the disease. Currently, 20 percent of HIV-positive Americans -- approximately 220,000 individuals -- are unaware of their infection. People with undiagnosed HIV infection are not receiving life-saving therapies, and it is estimated that they may unknowingly transmit up to 70 percent of new infections in the United States.

"We began this project with a desire to fill a fundamental gap in public access to HIV/AIDS information," said Gary Puckrein, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Minority Quality Forum. "Mapping the disease made visible health disparity zones around the country. It is an important step in increasing awareness and stemming the tide of the epidemic. Now that we can see more clearly where the problem is, we can improve data collection and analysis, prevention initiatives, early diagnosis and routine testing efforts in the hardest hit communities."

Highlights from the Atlas include the following:

-- The HIV/AIDS epidemic is concentrated in approximately 20 percent of
American counties (556 counties of the 3,027 counties for which data
were provided to the National Minority Quality Forum).
-- The HIV/AIDS epidemic is widespread among two-thirds of the
predominantly minority counties (comprising African Americans,
Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders) for which data were provided
to National Minority Quality Forum.


Using cutting-edge technology, the National Minority Quality Forum developed the HIV/AIDS Atlas from data provided by HIV/AIDS surveillance branches within state and territorial departments of health in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City. The Atlas presents county-level prevalence rates based on the reported numbers of people living with HIV (non-AIDS) and AIDS in 2006. Users of the Atlas can map available data in multiple ways, including by age, gender and race/ethnicity. They can also view their congressional and state legislative districts overlaid on the county-level HIV/AIDS prevalence maps.

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Less Than a Year After CDC Announced the U.S. HIV Epidemic Is Much Larger Than Previously Thought, Public's Sense of Urgency Is Down

Less Than a Year After CDC Announced the U.S. HIV Epidemic Is Much Larger Than Previously Thought, Public's Sense of Urgency Is Down, Even Among Some Higher Risk Groups


/PRNewswire/ -- Less than a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recalculated the size of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and announced that there were 40 percent more new HIV infections each year than previously believed, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Americans' sense of urgency about HIV/AIDS as a national health problem has fallen dramatically and their concern about HIV as a personal risk has also declined, even among some groups at higher risk.

Key findings of the survey include:

-- The share of Americans naming HIV/AIDS as the most urgent health
problem facing the nation dropped precipitously from 44 percent in
1995 to 17 percent in 2006 and to six percent now.
-- CDC estimates that HIV rates are seven times higher among African
Americans and three times higher among Latinos compared to whites.
While these groups are more likely than whites to see HIV/AIDS as an
urgent problem, fewer say it is a "more urgent" problem for their
community now than in 2006 (declining from 23% to 17% of all adults,
49% to 40% of African Americans, and 46% to 35% of Latinos).
-- The share of those ages 18-29 who say they are personally very
concerned about becoming infected with HIV declined from 30 percent in
1997 to 17 percent today; personal concern among young African
Americans declined from 54 percent to 40 percent over the same time
period.
-- More than half (53%) of non-elderly adults say they have been tested
for HIV, including 19 percent who say they were tested in the past
year. Testing is most common among adults under the age of 30, with
three in ten young adults and nearly half (47%) of young African
Americans reporting having been tested in the past year. However,
reported testing rates for all these groups have not changed much in
the past decade.


"Many indicators of urgency and concern are moving in the wrong direction, including for higher risk groups," said Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman. "The survey underscores the need for a new focus on domestic HIV," he added.

At a time when there have been calls for increased attention to the domestic HIV/AIDS crisis including the recent Obama administration announcement of the five year public awareness campaign, Act Against AIDS, the survey also finds public support for more spending.

Half of the public thinks that the federal government is spending too little on domestic HIV/AIDS, while just five percent say it spends too much. More than a third (36%) of Americans say they have personally donated money to an HIV/AIDS-related charity, including nearly half (45%) of African Americans, and there is confidence that new efforts in prevention will make a difference.

While down somewhat from 2006, public support for continued or increased government spending on HIV/AIDS is notable considering the current economic recession and a decline in reported visibility of the domestic epidemic. The share saying they have heard, seen, or read "a lot" or "some" about the problem of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. in the past year declined from 70 percent in 2004 to 45 percent in 2009, and the share that saw "a lot" was cut in half for not only the general public, but also among African Americans and Latinos.

Despite a polarizing debate in recent years about such issues as abstinence and condoms, six in ten Americans believe that spending more money on HIV prevention in the U.S. will lead to meaningful progress, and about half believe the same about spending on treatment.

Some Signs of Progress, But Misconceptions And Stigma Remain

The survey indicates some signs that HIV/AIDS in the U.S. may carry less stigma than in the past. For instance, there has been a slow and steady increase since the late 1990s in the share of people who say they would be very comfortable with a coworker who has HIV/AIDS (44% now, up from 32% in 1997). However, stigmatizing attitudes towards people with HIV have not gone away; fully half (51%) of the public says they would be uncomfortable having their food prepared by someone who is HIV positive.

Misconceptions may be a factor in stigma, and several remain when it comes to correct information about HIV transmission. One-third (34%) of Americans incorrectly believe or are unsure whether HIV can be transmitted by one of the following actions: sharing a drinking glass (27%), touching a toilet seat (17%), or swimming in a pool with an HIV positive person (14%).

Confusion about HIV transmission may contribute to discomfort around those who are HIV positive. People who harbor misconceptions about transmission are more likely to say they would be uncomfortable working with someone with HIV (43% versus 13% who correctly answered questions about transmission) and more likely to be uncomfortable having their food prepared by an HIV positive person (71% compared to 40%).

A significant share of the public also harbors misconceptions about prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Nearly one in five (18%) do not know there is no cure for AIDS and about one-quarter (27%) believe or are unsure whether former professional basketball player Magic Johnson has been cured of AIDS. Additionally, a quarter (24%) believe or are unsure whether there is a vaccine available to prevent HIV infection. Many of these misconceptions are more common in the African American community, including that Magic Johnson has been cured (37% of African Americans think he has been cured or are unsure), that there is a vaccine available to prevent infection (36%), and that there are drugs available that can cure HIV and AIDS (30%).

Methodology

The survey was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and was conducted January 26 through March 8, 2009, among a nationally representative random sample of 2,554 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews conducted by landline (N=1,951) and cell phone (N=603, including 214 who had no landline telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish. The survey includes oversamples of African American and Latino respondents as well as respondents ages 18-29. Results for all groups have been weighted to reflect their actual distribution in the nation. The margin of sampling error for the overall survey is plus or minus 3 percentage points, for whites it is plus or minus 4 percentage points, for African Americans it is plus or minus 5 percentage points, and for Latinos it is plus or minus 6 percentage points. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.

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UGA Symposium Covers Outbreaks and How to Prepare November 21

Deadly disease outbreaks that could threaten public safety and how the university and the government are preparing to handle them will be the topics of a campus symposium, “Diseases—What’s next… How are we preparing?” on Friday, Nov. 21, 8:30 a.m.– noon in rooms K-L of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. The symposium brings together UGA professors and a public health professional to discuss biological outbreaks, zoonotic diseases and threat responses. It is free and open to the public.

This forum is a way to educate the public about what threats are out there and inform people about the best practices they can use to protect themselves and their families,” said John Newton, event organizer and an emergency operations coordinator in the UGA Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness.

The forum features three prominent experts in the fields of life sciences and public health: Corrie Brown, pathology professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine; Chris Whalen, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the College of Public Health; and Dr. Stan Edwards, from the Georgia Division of Public Health and recently retired emergency coordinator with Gwinnett County.

“Seventy-five percent of all emerging diseases come from animals—think SARS, bird flu, West Nile virus. Hey, it’s time to think one medicine,” said Brown. “There is always the possibility of a terrorist introducing a new disease, but I think Mother Nature is probably the most dependable terrorist—she is always coming up with new diseases,” added Brown. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”

“I will be presenting some basic information about how epidemics develop and spread. From our understanding of the spread of an infectious disease we can devise interventions to limit, or better to prevent, the spread of infection,” said Whalen. “I will provide a framework for thinking about these questions.”

Edwards will discuss the public health response to disease outbreaks and what individuals can do to protect themselves when outbreaks occur.

The forum, part of the Academic-Professional Security Series, is sponsored by the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness and the Center for International Trade and Security.

For more information, see www.osep.uga.edu.

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