FRONTLINES
Combating HIV/AIDS:The Southern Strategy
The U.S. South is home to nearly half of the nation's new AIDS cases. Forty-one percent of Americans living with HIV reside in the South, and an estimated 46 percent of new AIDS cases are found in the region. Despite these numbers, only 9 percent of philanthropic HIV/AIDS funding is dedicated to Southern states. While HIV transmission and AIDS-related deaths have been greatly reduced over the last quarter century, the virus continues to spread at epidemic rates in many communities. Minority groups are disproportionately affected, representing 71 percent of new AIDS cases. HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death for African Americans.
Fifty-four percent of African Americans reside in the South. The region has experienced the most rapid increase in AIDS cases, with Southern states leading the nation in the number of people living with AIDS and the proportion of women and African Americans with AIDS living in rural areas.
The state of HIV/AIDS in the South is exacerbated by heightened factors in the region, including a health care delivery system in crisis; a significant stigma surrounding the disease; high rates of poverty; the prevalence of racism, sexism and homophobia; and high incarceration and immigration rates.
"The South has not received adequate HIV/AIDS prevention and care funding," says Ford Foundation Program Officer Terry McGovern. "In keeping with the foundation's tradition of addressing unmet need, we are working to make resources available to the communities most overlooked and devastated by the HIV/AIDS crisis." An initial $1.55 million Ford grant, along with $250,000 from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, is helping the National AIDS Fund establish a new initiative known as Southern REACH (Regional Expansion of Access and Capacity to Address HIV/AIDS).
This multiyear initiative will support community-based organizations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The new fund will help secure and develop HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention and care programs and encourage local philanthropy and leadership to devote greater resources and attention to communities affected by the virus.
www.aidsfund.org
HIV/AIDS in the U.S.
- From 2000 to 2003, new AIDS cases increased 35.6 percent in the Deep South states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina), compared with 5.2 percent in all other states combined.
- The greatest number of people estimated to be living with AIDS, AIDS deaths, and new AIDS diagnoses reside in the South, followed by the Northeast, West and Midwest.
- In the United States, 48.4 percent of new AIDS cases in 2005 occurred among African Americans. In Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, 70.7 percent, 77.6 percent and 75.7 percent of new cases, respectively, were among African Americans. By comparison, in those three states, an average of 31.7 percent of the population is African American.
New AIDS Cases in 2005
(percent occurring among African Americans)
Sources: American Journal of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, National AIDS Fund, Urban Institute, U.S. Census Bureau