HIV-AIDS rate is increasing across Florida

HIV/AIDS is at a `critical' level for men in Florida, a new study has found.

BY FRED TASKER
Miami Herald
September 3, 2009

MIAMI -- HIV/AIDS among Florida's men has reached critical levels, according to a new state report, and the highest rate in any racial/ethnic groups was in Miami-Dade County.

Overall, one in every 123 adult men in Florida was living with HIV/AIDS through 2008, said the report called Man Up: The Crisis of HIV/AIDS Among Florida's Men, by the Florida Department of Health. Overall, 90,000 Floridians age 13 years and over were living with HIV//AIDS. And 72 percent of them were men.

Overall, African-American men are still hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in terms of the overall infection rate. Statewide, one in 43 African-American men was living with HIV/AIDS. compared with one in 117 Hispanic men and one in 209 non-Hispanic men.

However, the proportion of African Americans among newly infected men declined dramatically between 1999 and 2008.

In 2008, persons living with HIV/AIDS included:

• In Miami-Dade, one in 60 non-Hispanic white men, one in 82 Hispanic men and one in 29 African-American men.

• In Broward, one in 76 non-Hispanic white men, one in 98 Hispanic men and one in 42 African-American men.

Florida's population is 61 percent non-Hispanic white, 22 percent Hispanic, 15 percent African-America and 3 percent other.

Florida's share of the nation's HIV/AIDS cases remains high. In 2006, Florida had 5,550 new infections -- nearly 10 percent of the 56,500 new cases in the entire country.

It's important to know where to target messages about fighting HIV/AIDS, the report said, because ``HIV transmission can be prevented with successful behavior change among those already infected.''

``This report seeks to encourage men to `man up' and take responsibility for the consequences of their sexual actions.''

It urged Florida's men to ``be faithful, use condoms, get tested for HIV, be honest with sexual partners, seek treatment, get an annual physical exam and challenge societal expectations of men that may encourage unsafe behaviors .''