The Deep South Is Being Hit Hard by HIV/AIDS

The Deep South has the highest death rate of newly diagnosed AIDS cases in the country, according to new research which analyzes the growing epidemic in the region and seeks to articulate its causes, which include social stigma, rural geography, and poverty.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and the Centers for Disease Control worked together to analyze the diagnosis and death rates of HIV and AIDS patients in nine "target" states in the Deep South, including: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Those states now account for 49 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS, despite making up just 37 percent of the national population, according to the research published in the Journal of Community Health. Researchers also found the region has the lowest five-year survival rate for new AIDS diagnoses in the country; nearly a third of those diagnosed with AIDS in 2003-04 died within five years of being told they were infected.

Susan Reif, of the Duke University Global Health Institute, told VICE News that the researchers wanted to look specifically at the states hit hardest by HIV infection in recent years to try and determine some of the characteristics of people diagnosed and what their outcomes were.

Compared to national averages, patients in the target states tended to be younger and more often African American, while many also attributed their infection to heterosexual transmission, and had worse outcomes, Reif said. The research also noted an increase of young African American men who identify as straight but have had sex with men, she said.