Survival rates for those infected with HIV/AIDS in the South are the lowest across the nation.

Nine southern states, including North Carolina, are hit disproportionately hard by HIV/AIDS, according to new research out of Duke University. The study found 15% of those diagnosed with HIV, and 27% diagnosed with AIDS, died within five years of their diagnosis, based on numbers from 2003 – 2004.

Lee Storrow, Executive Director of the North Carolina AIDS Action Network, says the disease has grown beyond its initial profile of mainly affecting young-to-middle-aged white gay men.

“Unfortunately, we have really seen this disease evolve over the last 20 years,” he says. “[We’re] seeing a new focus and new outbreaks amongst poor residents of this county – and a concentration of new epidemics in the South.”

Storrow adds many factors play into the increased HIV rates – and the lower survival rate associated with the disease – particularly in our region.

“When you look at poverty rates in the deep South, when you look at lower levels of education, and you look at the social stigma,” he says, “I think all of those are factors that are contributing to increased rates of HIV in the South.”

Storrow says the stigma associated with the disease is a major obstacle in battling its treatment.

He adds, while sexual contact is the main form of transmission, the disease can also be passed by sharing needles, among other avenues.

Unfortunately, Storrow says our social environment can be deadly for those who are HIV positive.

“That stigma is something that means that people don’t share their medical conditions. They don’t receive testing,” he says. “And there’s a number of people who have received testing, and might know that they’re HIV positive, but aren’t actually in care to receive the treatment that they need.”

He adds battling the stigma is difficult on several layers, including not being able to legislate against a social stigma as you can with other more overt obstacles.

Of what can be controlled, access is a major theme for treatment, according to Storrow.

“One thing we know,” he says, “is that if you have access to stable-consistent-safe housing, you’re ability to access medical care significantly increases.”

And access to steady-affordable medical care can then translate to more effective treatment of the disease.

Storrow says the biggest way state legislators can help in the fight against HIV/AIDS is by expanding Medicaid.

He adds it will take teamwork – between lawmakers, everyone in our community, and beyond – to fight back against HIV/AIDS.

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