The Politics Of AIDS: AIDS Rates Highest In The South & Among African-Americans

AJC: New map finds HIV rates are highest in the South


This information is not going to go away without certain operatives getting their fair share of exercise with the data. Since this is an Associated Press story it has national distribution and thus it should be a topic of discussion of some show on NPR. I listen to NPR extensively.

Thus some shown on NPR is going to invite a health care activist in the Black community in to talk about these disturbing facts about HIV infection rates in the South and in the Black Community.

I assure you that in their diatribe they will:

1. Use these facts as about HIV infections as further proof that a national system of "Single Payer Health Care" is needed. Poor people in the South and African Americans have disproportionately less access to health care. We need a more compassionate system of care in this country.
2. The South is a conservative, Republican dominated area. As such "Abstinence Only Education" has been put in place. This data shows that this Bush Era policy has been deadly to Black people. We need to scrap "AOE" and teach proper sex education in our schools.
3. The South will be attacked beyond "AOE" where the basic culture and the "ignorance" that is prevalent as the reason for its current predicament. If the place opened itself up to be more enlightened with "progressive" sentiments the regions fate would also change.
   

The host of this particular show, likely a fellow traveler with the activist will accept both of these claims while missing the irony of them both and will not ask more probing questions to test the veracity of the claims.

The rebuttal of all of these claims are related: - it is NOT the "lack of health care" that got these people exposed and infected with HIV. Nor was it their IGNORANCE of how to put a condom on their penis prior to sticking it into an orifice that has been previously infected with the HIV virus. If you can find me one sexually active person in this nation who is unaware of the function of a condom I will find you a smoker who has no idea what the government warning labels on the side of a cigarette pack means.

The truth is actually an indictment against all that the activists in both camps stand for.

HIV spreads amongst populations that have a fractured or destroyed social order. Take the concept of MORALS - and throw them out of the window - I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT MORALS!

From a mechanical stand point - the more opportunities for there to be exchanges of body fluids between one human being and another - the more chances that the HIV virus has to jump between a person that has been infected over to one that was not previously infected. If we take a dispassionate view of this situation then indeed "Wrap It Up" and government needle changes would be effective on paper. Set up a physical barrier between these two pools of body fluids and the problem is solved.

The only problem that this creates is that it does not respect the full humanity of the human being. I posted the words of South African Cardinal Wilfred Napier that argued this same point. He stated that it is the human being that must be made aware of the costs and the risks of his behavior and to consciously avoid these actions or limit the perimeter of individuals in which they engage in such behavior with. This places the onus upon the human intellect to address this problem. Out of which will come social constructs such as monogamous marriage and a suppression of intravenous drug use.

Programs such as "Wrap It UP" tap upon the "condom" as the physical prophylactic while maintaining the "non-judgmental" ethos of the progressives that are pushing this notion. The come not with social constructs that seek to regulate behavior and reduce the perimeter. It only says "if you are going to do potentially risky sexual actions - have the male to place a .3 mil thick piece of plastic over his penis and you'll be safe".

Unanswered is the question:

• I have a hot opportunity in front of me right now but no condoms to "Wrap It Up With". Should I pass it up?
• Since this person has an unknown perimeter to me is this too great of a risk for me regardless of the condom?
• Despite having my government issued needle is the person beside me who I will share this clean needle with infected and thus this government issued needle will be the delivery source for HIV into my body?
  

Indeed we are likely to hear follow up reports upon this news about the map which shows the concentration of HIV infections.

I ask that you be mindful for people who will tell the truth as to the reasons WHY it is spreading and if they are willing to be dislodged out of their entrenched positions now that it is becoming increasingly clear that 'THEIR WAY' is a deadly way for the masses who like their way? There's is a "no fault, outsourced responsibility" way. Upon which large swaths of communities will perish.

A new Internet data map offers a first-of-its-kind, county-level look at HIV cases in the U.S. and finds the infection rates tend to be highest in the South.

The highest numbers of HIV cases are in population centers like New York and California. However, many of the areas with the highest rates of HIV — that is, the highest proportion of people with the AIDS-causing virus — are in the South, according to the data map, which has information for about 99 percent of the nation’s counties.

HIV infection rates are higher in African-American communities, and high minority populations in the South help explain the finding. While that’s not surprising, the high rates seen throughout states like Georgia and South Carolina were, said Gary Puckrein, president of the National Minority Quality Forum, the nonprofit research organization that put the map together.

Of 48 counties with the highest prevalence rates for HIV that had not yet progressed to AIDS, 25 were in Georgia, according to the map. Those were counties in which more than .7 percent of the population was infected with HIV.

Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia were heavily represented on another map of counties, which showed the highest prevalence rates for cases that had progressed to AIDS.

The map depicts reported numbers of people living with HIV and AIDS in 2006. Puckrein said the data came from state health departments and was checked against information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Different states report data in different ways, and there may be case duplication that could impact some of the findings, Puckrein said.

The CDC’s HIV and AIDS prevalence data is reported on a state level, not by county. CDC officials were cautious about the data map, saying they hadn’t seen all the organization’s information.

“But we have long been part of the effort to identify geographic differences in the HIV epidemic, and we do see the need for efforts like these to facilitate better understanding of these differences,” said CDC spokeswoman Elizabeth-Ann Chandler.

METRO Atlanta:

This could be a map of:

• The Highest Concentrations of People
• The Democratic Strongholds
• The Highest Concentrations Of African-Americans
• The Self-Described "Progressive" and "Tolerant" Counties
  
• The Highest HIV Infection Rates

You would be correct on all of these points.

Our community must ask ourselves "What is the COST for us continuing with the priorities that we presently have guiding us? What is the benefit for a more organic and conscious CHANGE outside of the political domain?"