50% OF NEW U.S. HIV CASES OCCUR IN THE “SOUTH”

You might think HIV/AIDS has been relegated to a Third World problem, but the virus is ravaging populations right here in the American South.

Some 50% of new HIV cases occur in Dixie, which is home to more HIV-positive Americans than any other region and also has the country’s highest AIDS death rate.

Poor minority areas often lack effective treatments, particularly given the often-late diagnoses, writes documentary filmmaker Lisa Biagiotti in the Los Angeles Times. Mississippi provides a case in point: Half its residents who know they have HIV aren’t being treated—the same figure seen in Ethiopia.

Mississippi’s death rate is 60% higher than the national average.

In the South, “HIV is a social illness affecting a deeply entrenched underclass,” Biagiotti notes. “Deeper than poverty,” the epidemic can trace its roots to a social structure still feeling the effects of slavery, says a researcher.

Young gay black men face a 60% chance of contracting HIV by the time they’re 40, and for many, the only escape is moving out.

While President Obama is attacking the epidemic in cities, that population-focused effort may not “translate to rural areas,” Biagiotti writes. As the International AIDS Conference takes place in Washington, let’s hope they turn their eyes southward.

Check out a clip of her documentary, “DEEPSOUTH”