HIV Survival Rates Lower In Some Southern U.S. States

An HIV diagnosis can be life changing. Yet new medications and therapeutic treatments are making it easier for patients dealing with the virus to live normal lives. However, proper treatment and prevention methods are essential in the process. 

New findings published in the Journal of Community Health show that some areas are more keen to protection methods as well available treatments. Particularly for those living in the southern U.S., study results showed that they had the lowest five-year survival rate among those diagnosed in 2003-2004. Fifteen percent of people diagnosed with HIV and 27 percent of those diagnosed with AIDS in that year had died within five years of diagnosis.

As it stands, patients in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are disproportionately hit by HIV/AIDS and tend to be younger, more rural African-Americans and females. They are also more likely to attribute their HIV infection to heterosexual encounters.

"This research documents the dire consequences that having an HIV diagnosis in the Deep South region has for too many individuals," said Duke University law professor Carolyn McAllaster, who directs the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative (SASI) and the law school's AIDS/HIV and Cancer Legal Project, in a news release. 

Though the study did not explain why there are higher death rates among people living with HIV in certain southern states, lead study author Susan Reif of the Duke Global Health Institute believes that it may have something to do lower education levels, social stigmas and lack of insurance coverage that is more common in the aforementioned areas. 

"These differences are crucial to consider when creating strategies to address HIV/AIDS in this region," Reif concluded. "Clearly greater investment and focus are required to address the unique nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South."

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