South Accounts for Half of Recent HIV Cases in US: HRW

According to Human Rights Watch, 65 to 75 percent of HIV-positive people in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi, are African-Americans constituting one-third of the population in these states.

MOSCOW, December 1 (Sputnik) — The epicenter of the HIV epidemic in the United States has moved from East and West coast cities to the South, accounting for 50 percent of recently registered cases of the infection, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced Monday.

"Today the epidemic's profile looks very different – it is spreading fastest in the southern US, which now accounts for half of new HIV infections in the country," HRW's news release reads.

According to HRW, 65 to 75 percent of HIV-positive people in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi, are African-Americans constituting one-third of the population in those states. Drug addicts, gay, transgender people and sex workers are considered particularly vulnerable to HIV.

The AIDS death toll is also higher in South than in other US regions, the organization concluded.

Among the main factors fueling the spread of the infection in the South, HRW names unstable housing, poverty, lack of equal access to HIV services, and the poor level of investment in prevention and treatment programs.

US Southern States have the strictest eligibility criteria for Medicaid, US social health care program for people on low incomes. As a result, most of people in the US South living with HIV are left without coverage, HRW states.

"Today, on World AIDS Day, it's important to remember that the HIV epidemic can be ended, but only when human rights are respected and proven, evidence-based approaches are adopted", HRW concludes.

World AIDS Day is held annually on December 1 to raise global awareness of the causes of the infection. As of 2014, over 35 million have been registered with HIV, according to estimates by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

Symptoms and spread of HIV and AIDS

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