Broward is No. 1 in U.S. for new cases of AIDS

November 18, 2005

A sizable jump in new AIDS cases last year cemented South Florida as the nation’s epicenter of the disease, higher than New York and all other metropolitan areas, federal figures showed Thursday.

Broward County, which ranked fourth a year ago, led the nation with 58.4 new AIDS cases per 100,000 people, while Miami-Dade County remained second at 57.8 and Palm Beach County rose from sixth to fifth at 39.5 cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York was third, with 56.7 per 100,000 and Washington, D.C., was fourth with 40.3 per 100,000.

State and local health officials said they hope the big jump in AIDS last year was an aberration, caused by a major campaign of testing that started in 2002 to identify people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“We all had high HIV numbers in the past. When our HIV numbers were high, some of those people have progressed on to AIDS,” said Lorenzo Robertson, minority AIDS coordinator at the Palm Beach County Health Department.

But officials said some of the new cases were more troubling: People who were HIV-positive for years but only found out when they developed full-blown AIDS. Most had never been tested or treated.

Florida’s 24 percent rise in AIDS last year came as the rest of the nation held steady. Broward cases leaped by 49 percent and Miami-Dade by 33 percent, while Palm Beach County held flat. The three counties reported 2,825 AIDS cases last year.

“The trend is going to continue until we have a sustained period of declining HIV. We hope we’re seeing that now,” Robertson said.

The new federal figures, which are the latest available, carried good news on that front. New HIV infections were down in South Florida and nationally last year, suggesting that efforts to promote safe sex were working.

Nationally, the CDC also reported Thursday the rate of new HIV cases among blacks — the population hardest hit by the virus — has dropped by about 5 percent a year since 2001. Florida previously reported a similar drop. This is crucial because half of new HIV cases in Florida and nationally strike black people.

However, blacks are still eight times more likely than whites to contract HIV.

“The racial disparities remain severe,” said Lisa Lee, an epidemiologist at the CDC.

The study was based on 2001-04 data from 33 states that have name-based reporting systems for HIV cases, including Florida. The CDC found that HIV cases dipped from 41,207 cases in 2001 to 38,685 in 2004. The rate fell from 22.8 cases per 100,000 people in 2001 to 20.7 per 100,000 in 2004.

The decline was more pronounced among blacks: The rate dropped from 88.7 per 100,000 in 2001 to 76.3 in 2004. Among whites, the rate rose slightly from 8.7 to 9.0.

The decline is linked to a 4 percent drop in HIV among heterosexuals. About 69 percent of heterosexuals diagnosed with HIV were black.

Diagnoses among men who have sex with men remained roughly stable from 2001 to 2003 but climbed 8 percent between 2003 and 2004. CDC officials said they could
not explain the recent increase.

The government does not know exactly how many people have HIV. About 25 percent of people living with HIV do not know they are infected, health officials said.

Information from The Associated was used in this report.

Bob LaMendola can be reached at blamendola@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4526.