ATLANTA - Despite the best efforts of health departments and prevention groups, cases of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases remain high in the South.
"Things don't seem to be getting any better, even though we keep talking and working," Duke University health policy expert Kate Whetten told a regional conference on the issue Tuesday. "What we've done hasn't worked."
For example, AIDS cases rose 27 percent for six Southern states - Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - between 2000 and 2002. Whetten said such cases only rose by 11 percent during the same period in the entire Midwest.
A separate study found that North Carolina AIDS rates increased by 36 percent between 2001 and 2003.
"These six states are in a lot of trouble," Whetten said. "You're better off being born in Costa Rica or some South American countries than in Durham, N.C."
In addition, the nation's highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea remain in Southeastern states, many of which are plagued with high poverty levels, poor health care resources and low levels of health insurance coverage.
Health officials met at the Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative conference in Atlanta to try to determine ways to attack the STD problem in the region.
The initiative, sponsored by the Pfizer Foundation, focuses on reducing HIV infections in nine Southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. The foundation has given more than $3 million to community groups that work to prevent the rise of AIDS in the South.
The problem is that health officials say they have difficulty sending prevention messages to so many diverse - and sometimes silent and isolated - groups in the South. The same prevention messages that are being used to curb outbreaks of STDs among gay and bisexual men in major U.S. cities just won't work, they said.
That's because the South's STD cases include groups of men who have sex with other men but don't consider themselves gay or bisexual.
In addition, groups have also been working on unique ways to educate teenagers. The Savannah-based Union Mission has worked with middle school and high school students to create a hip-hop based musical that promotes abstinence to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. A version for area college students touts a safe-sex message.
"We saw through outreach it was very hard to access teens," said DaVena Jordan, a health educator for the mission. Through hip-hop, "we get the message to them and raise awareness."
The HIV and STD problem in the South is also hindered by the health care system, which mainly seeks to treat the ill, said Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Inc.
Source: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/11615265.htm
Indeed.
"Things don't seem to be getting any better, even though we keep talking and working," Duke University health policy expert Kate Whetten told a regional conference on the issue Tuesday. "What we've done hasn't worked."
For example, AIDS cases rose 27 percent for six Southern states - Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - between 2000 and 2002. Whetten said such cases only rose by 11 percent during the same period in the entire Midwest.
A separate study found that North Carolina AIDS rates increased by 36 percent between 2001 and 2003.
"These six states are in a lot of trouble," Whetten said. "You're better off being born in Costa Rica or some South American countries than in Durham, N.C."
In addition, the nation's highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea remain in Southeastern states, many of which are plagued with high poverty levels, poor health care resources and low levels of health insurance coverage.
Health officials met at the Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative conference in Atlanta to try to determine ways to attack the STD problem in the region.
The initiative, sponsored by the Pfizer Foundation, focuses on reducing HIV infections in nine Southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. The foundation has given more than $3 million to community groups that work to prevent the rise of AIDS in the South.
The problem is that health officials say they have difficulty sending prevention messages to so many diverse - and sometimes silent and isolated - groups in the South. The same prevention messages that are being used to curb outbreaks of STDs among gay and bisexual men in major U.S. cities just won't work, they said.
That's because the South's STD cases include groups of men who have sex with other men but don't consider themselves gay or bisexual.
In addition, groups have also been working on unique ways to educate teenagers. The Savannah-based Union Mission has worked with middle school and high school students to create a hip-hop based musical that promotes abstinence to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. A version for area college students touts a safe-sex message.
"We saw through outreach it was very hard to access teens," said DaVena Jordan, a health educator for the mission. Through hip-hop, "we get the message to them and raise awareness."
The HIV and STD problem in the South is also hindered by the health care system, which mainly seeks to treat the ill, said Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Inc.
Source: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/11615265.htm
Indeed.
