New research has revealed that Georgia is the number one state in the country for reported HIV cases.
The study, compiled from CDC data by Universal Drugstore, found that Georgia’s HIV rate is 23.1 reported cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the country – followed by Louisiana at 18.2 cases per 100,000 and Nevada at 17.7 – and more than double the national average of 11.8.
Within Georgia, the HIV epidemic is particularly severe in Atlanta. The metro Atlanta area had the third-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in 2021, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview with Jeff Cheek, the director of the Fulton Country Department of HIV Elimination. The Atlanta area accounted for more than half of all the new HIV diagnoses that year. As of 2022, 43,257 people were living with HIV in Atlanta, and Black Atlantans were disproportionately impacted; despite making up 33 percent of the population, Black Atlantans made up 72 percent of HIV cases.
According to a report published in the National Library of Medicine about the disparities in HIV care between Black and white men who have sex with men in Atlanta, the higher rates of HIV among Black people are “hypothesized to be driven by structural racism and barriers to care.”
“When you look at the population as a whole and racial disparities, there’s no racial justice in HIV, and I think it’s important to focus on Black and brown people,” Joshua O’Neal, the Sexual Health Program Director of the Fulton County Board of Health, told Fox 5.
Due to an increased focus on HIV prevention and access to care, however, HIV rates have dropped both in Georgia and across the U.S. by 12 percent (from 2018 to 2022) and 13.5 percent (from 2018 to 2020), respectively.
Along with HIV, Georgia also ranked high for monkeypox cases with 17.4 cases per 100,000 residents, making it the second-highest state in the country following New York at 20.8. Overall, Georgia ranked sixth in the country for sexually transimitted infections (STIs).
Regionally, the Southeast is the worst affected by STIs in the country, with eight of the top ten states for STI cases located in the South:
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- North Carolina
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Louisiana
- South Carolina
- Nevada
- Florida
You can read the full research from Universal Drugstore here.