The South is the new “ground zero” for HIV

[varun]

What? The Bible-belt is the new gomorrah???


http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid33174.asp

The domestic HIV epidemic is becoming one largely centered in Southern states, with a total of 17 states in the South now accounting for nearly half of all the country’s new HIV cases, reports the Associated Press. While new U.S. HIV cases climbed less than 1% nationwide between 2000 and 2004, they rose 9% in the South.

"The South is the new ‘ground zero’ for the AIDS epidemic," Kathy Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama, told the news agency. "And yet most people have no idea just how bad it is or how much worse it could get."

Much of the disease’s impact in the South is among African-Americans, who some officials say are at a greater risk for the disease because of poverty, substance abuse, a lack of sex education, and a lack of access to health services. In Alabama, for example, African-Americans account for 26% of the population but account for 70% of new HIV diagnoses. (The Advocate)

[durrrty libby]

1. We have failed on so many levels n/t

[Warpy]

5. Their CHURCHES have failed, you mean,

by trying to pretend that nice, godly people don't DO sex, by forcing people into the position of lying to themselves that they'll never do it, of lying to themselves that only sluts of both sexes do it and like it, of making sure the denial leaves them uneducated and unprepared.

Churches have been in the forefront of fighting all sex education in the schools, except for the dangerously unrealistic and disinformational abstinence lectures.

That is where the blame lies. The churches have caused a lot of this mess. They are in a position to fix it. Let's hope they do so.

[donsu]

7. don't hold your breath

nt

[jobycom]

2. The South has always been high on VD, underage pregnancies, etc

Most of it, I think, is a lack of education and an extreme social stigma against anything sexual. Kids don't ask for birth control or protection, and it's harder to walk into stores and buy them. It's not just religious attitudes, there's a cultural attitude that only lower-class people have babies out of wedlock or get these diseases, so people are just afraid to address the issue. The South is more class-conscious than is realized, I think.

Those are just my observations, not any statistical or scientific evidence.

[bullimiami]

3. the really screwed up fact is that the same people that

reveled in the gays getting aids, who are not that concerned with the dead and dying in africa, now will also be pointing fingers and nodding about poor blacks in this country dying of it.
and they will do little or nothing to help.

[donsu]

6. have a feeling that AIDs reporting in poor white communities is

hidden or under reported

[nonconformist]

4. A couple more articles, longer and more in depth

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060628/OPINION01/606270351/1006

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/14895012.htm