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HIV in Atlanta/Georgia-Aging
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Georgia is the No. 1 state in rates of new infections, and metro Atlanta is No. 3 among metropolitan areas, says Dr. Wendy Armstrong of Emory University, and medical director of the Infectious Disease Program at Grady Health System. Grady's Ponce de Leon Center, which provides HIV services, has 6,200 "active'' patients, and the number is rising, Armstrong says.
"We have a huge epidemic, a lot of new infections,'' says Dr. Carlos del Rio, chair of the Department of Global Health and professor of epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health.......https://www.wabe.org/in-new-offensive-against-hiv-metro-atlanta-is-a-battleground/
"Downtown Atlanta has a generalized HIV epidemic that mirrors what we see in some African cities," says Carlos del Rio, Hubert Professor at Rollins School of Public Health and co-director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). The reasons have more to do with poverty, lack of insurance, and stigma than with sexual practices. The high rates of HIV/AIDS are mostly confined to a specific group—young, black men who have sex with men. In fact, AIDS is the leading cause of death for black men in Georgia between the ages of 35 and 44. Curbing the HIV epidemic in this disenfranchised population will require more than developing better treatments and drugs.
"This is not something that is going to be solved by biomedical researchers," says del Rio, chair of global health at Rollins. "We need everyone working together to address all the things that keep people from getting the diagnosis and treatment they need—lack of insurance, barriers to care, stigma, and poverty. Emory and our partners are making real progress in Atlanta, but we still have a long way to go." https://news.emory.edu/features/2018/05/aids-atl/index.html........Percent of people living with HIV, by Race/Ethnicity, 2017
70.4% Black | 6.8% Hispanic/Latinx | 18.2% White. Percent of people living with HIV, by Sex, 2017
80.4% male | 19.6% female......https://aidsvu.org/local-data/united-states/south/georgia/atlanta/
As of the end of 2017, there were 58,808 persons living with HIVin Georgia, and 2,698 persons were diagnosed in 2017. The number of persons living with HIV continues to increase, because ofeffective therapies now available. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2017HIV Surveillance Report, Georgia was ranked the fifth highest in the nation for both the total number of new diagnoses of HIV infection among adults and adolescentsandforthe number of persons living with HIV infection, after Florida, California, Texas, and New York1. Georgia ranked 1st in the rate of HIV diagnosis among adults and adolescents, and 4th in the rate of persons living with HIV.
Atlanta's HIV Problem Is Now An Epidemic
https://www.essence.com/news/atlantas-hiv-problem-is-now-an-epidemic/
By Tanya A. Christian · December 11, 2018
The CDC is not mincing words. Atlanta's high rate of HIV infections has long been compared to that of third-world countries, but now the Center For Disease Control admits that it's officially an epidemic.
According to a report by WSB-TV Atlanta, Georgia's risk of diagnosis is 1 in every 51 people. But if you live in metro Atlanta, AIDS research officials say that the number of people infected is even more staggering.
"Downtown Atlanta is as bad as Zimbabwe or Harare or Durban," Dr. Carlos del Rio, co-director of Emory University's Center for AIDS Research told WSB-TV reporters.
Among those most impacted by the epidemic are African American men and women, with African American teens and young people ranking high among those with the greatest risk.
In the report, the CDC attributes some of the fault to a lack of leadership and management in the city's most populous county, and limited access to healthcare for its residents. Currently, there are more than 35,000 people living with HIV in Atlanta, Georgia.
Those working to curb the epidemic have turned to educating ATLiens on the benefits of PrEP, and encouraging them to take the increasingly popular drug. For those who do not have HIV, the medication helps to lower their risk of getting infected.
https://dph.georgia.gov/sites/dph.georgia.gov/files/HIV_EPI_2017_Fact_Sheet_20190128.pdf
https://dph.georgia.gov/sites/dph.georgia.gov/files/HIV_EPI_2017_Surveillance_Summary_20190128.pdf
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