Daytona Beach, FL - Cases of HIV and/or AIDS are going up for Volusia County’s white population while falling for its blacks and latinos.
That’s just one part of a new “Healthy Volusia” quarterly report released on Monday by the Florida Department of Health.
The report shows the HIV infection rate for Caucasian adults in Volusia increased by 20% in the past decade while the same rate for African-Americans and Hispanics fell 15% and 42% during the same time period, respectively.
Patrick Forand – the AIDS Program Manager for the Florida Department of Health in Volusia County – says a lot of the rise in HIV cases for whites is linked to men having unprotected sex with other men, whereas the drop for blacks and latinos is tied to FDOH and other organizations pushing to make those communities more aware.
“We want to make sure that those communities know to get educated about HIV, to get involved and, of course, to get tested,” Forand added. “Once you get tested and you know your status, then you’re able to protect yourself and your partners.”
The FDOH report does show a 33.3% drop in the number of adult males who have had sex with other men who have never been tested for HIV or AIDS in Volusia. It also shows a 10.9% drop of such men who have ever been tested for HIV or AIDS in Volusia.
115 people living in Volusia County were diagnosed with HIV last year, an increase of 36.9% compared to 2013 when 84 people were in that same category.
The report also shows that more Volusia adults under the age of 65 have gotten tested for HIV or AIDS in the past 12 months. 10.9% did so in 2013, nearly double the 5.7% that said likewise in 2010. That’s the most recent FDOH data available in that category.
44.2% of Volusia’s adult population under 65 years old has never been tested for HIV or AIDS at any point as of 2013, which is also the most recent data available by FDOH. That’s under the 47.7% posted for the next available year, which is 2010.
As in 2013, there were no new cases of Volusia babies acquiring HIV or AIDS in the womb in 2014. FDOH data also shows that the number of Volusia’s pregnant women who have never been tested for HIV or AIDS dropped by 84.6% from 2013 to 2014.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1.5 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2013 and an estimated 39 million people with AIDS have died worldwide since the disease was first discovered.
As of 2013, CDC stats show nearly 35.3 million people were living with HIV globally, with 1.2 million in the United States, 106,335 in Florida and 1,410 people in Volusia County.
Click here for the full report.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.