New online mapping tool helps track HIV/AIDS prevalence

June 22, 9:52 PMColorado HIV and AIDS ExaminerDanielle Jones

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June 22nd marked the release of a new online tool to help public health officials track the HIV/AIDS epidemic by state. The National HIV/AIDS Atlas will provide health care professionals, policy makers and elected officials access to local, state and national data in order to determine how the disease is impacting their community. The Atlas presents data on the prevalence rates of HIV (non-AIDS) and AIDS cases from 2006 from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The prevalence rates depicted are based on the geographical area in which people were tested, which is not necessarily their place of residence. A feature of this new tool allows users to organize statistics by age, gender and race/ethnicity. State officials are also able to gather specific data by congressional and state legislative districts.

The data for the Atlas was collected from territorial departments of health and analyzed by the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) staff in partnership with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health and Health Services of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The NMQF is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 with the mission to strengthen national and local efforts to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness in racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations.

The Atlas indicates that those counties with the highest HIV prevalence rates were primarily located in the states of Georgia, New Jersey and Virginia. AIDS prevalence rates were also heavily concentrated in these areas as well as Florida, Louisiana, New York and South Carolina.

The primary goal of this new online tool is to increase awareness of the disease’s impact on communities and to be able to better determine where funding and resources should be most accurately targeted.

For more info: Learn how to use the Atlas