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AIDS/HIV still prevalent in Collier, Lee with nearly 3,000 cases
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The initial panic may be gone and the stigma is slowly receding, but the HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over for America’s growing minority population.
And with National HIV Testing Day on Friday, June 27, local health agencies and not-for-profit groups plan to host educational events and to reach out to Southwest Florida’s minority communities.
“The one thing is we have a particular group (minorities) that is much more difficult to reach,” said Dr. Peter Bright, with Fort Myers-based Island Coast AIDS Network, a nonprofit AIDS service organization.
In 2006, minorities made up 70 percent of the reported AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) cases in the U.S., with Florida having the third-highest AIDS rates for blacks and fourth-highest rate for Hispanics in the country.
Florida also was first in AIDS rates for whites.
The same holds true in Southwest Florida — Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Lee and Sarasota counties — where a total of more than 6,460 HIV/AIDS cases were tracked in 2007.
“There is a general disproportion when you compare it (the percentage of the minority community affected) to the white community,” said Amalia Zamot, regional minority HIV/AIDS coordinator for the Florida Department of Health.
She said the disproportionate share is especially true for Florida’s black community, in which one in every 72 blacks has HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) or has been diagnosed with AIDS.
“It’s not cut-and-dried. We have to be culturally sensitive and culturally proficient,” she said, adding the state is trying hard to reach sub-populations, including Haitians, African-Americans and different Hispanic groups.
To help combat the disease, the Collier County Health Department has become a “one-stop shop,” said HIV/AIDS Program Manager Scott Tims, offering on-site testing, medical aid, education and support programs.
But to really be effective, Tims said, testing isn’t limited to the Health Department building.
“We go out and test in the community,” he said.
Tims said the staff is working with local nonprofits and churches to set up outreach programs.
“The communities at risk need to be aware of the numbers,” Tims said.
As of June 16, Collier had a total of 1,357 HIV/AIDS cases, of which 60 percent were minorities. In addition, among all of the reported cases, roughly 55 percent were in the Naples area, while 45 percent were reported in Immokalee.
With a total of roughly 1,434 cumulative HIV/AIDS cases as of January, Lee County also has taken a pro-active approach, said Jeanmanno Emmanuel Titus, HIV/AIDS surveillance manager for Lee, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties.
In addition to several outreach programs in the community and local churches, Lee’s health department also has set up several testing sites throughout the county, he said.
Titus added that in Lee, HIV/AIDS is more evenly spread out geographically, but that Fort Myers has a large concentration of incidents.
“That’s where we have the highest rate,” Titus said.
Zamot said even though there have been gains by HIV/AIDS activists to overcome the stigma that’s attached and to educate people, some impressions remain because people see it as a behavioral disease.
“People automatically assume, ‘You must have done something,’” said Zamot, adding that dealing with numerous minority groups meant that there are cultural nuances that have to be navigated.
And reaching out to black and Hispanic males, regardless of background, has been difficult, Bright said.
“It’s much easier to get women to get tested, than men,” he said.
However, getting HIV/AIDS education and testing information to those most likely at risk is necessary, Zamot said.
“The truth of the matter is that it (HIV/AIDS) affects everyone,” Zamot said.
For more information about National HIV Testing Day and to get local testing information visit http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Disease_ctrl/aids/index.html.
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The only thing they do not tell you about the numbers is that AIDS is the only disease which is reported in CUMULATIVE* statistics: in other
words the very first case of this disease is counted in the numbers. No other disease or condition is reported this way.
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*cumulative |ˈkyoōmyələtiv; -ˌlātiv|
adjective
increasing or increased in quantity, degree, or force by successive additions : the cumulative effect of two years of drought.
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Why? I have some good "guesses" aka insight but the numbers do attract attention when they are reported this way.
If we counted measles the same way, we would be counting every case of measles which ever happened in the history of the disease. Even some other serious bloodborne diseases like hepatitis B or C are not reported this way. Even rabies isn't reported this way.
Why? I will let you gue$$.
I am not minimizing the disease or its seriousness but this inconsistency in reporting makes it confusing to most people.
#1 Posted by BlueTonguedVole on June 21, 2008 at 7:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Confusing to most people? I'd say scares people into being safe and getting tested. We have come a long way in fighting this disease to where it is no longer a death sentence and you can live a normal life span with the use of proper (very expensive) medication, but it is still a very scary situation. I personally have friends fighting this disease who have people that look at them as if they are at fault for having it when that is not always the case, I love them dearly and have never looked at them in a "different" manner for it. I have yet to understand if they know what it causes how they cannot find a way to cure it, my friends believe it is because there is way to much money to be made in keeping you alive with it why cure you? After researching this for a very close friend of mine living with HIV, I tend to agree medication will cost over $1,000 a month not to mention doctors visits and lab work that needs to be done.
#2 Posted by MIAbrat on June 21, 2008 at 8:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks, BTV.
I did not know...
#3 Posted by CutthroatLiberal on June 21, 2008 at 10:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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