Advertisement

Ingham County has highest HIV rate outside of Detroit

For the second year in a row, Ingham county has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the state outside Detroit and Wayne county.
The 2010 statistical analysis released by the Michigan Department of Community Health shows Ingham has a prevalence rate of 159 cases per 100,000. The state average is 149 cases per 100,000 people.
Wayne County has a prevalence rate of 369 infections per 100,000 people. Other areas of concern include Genessee County at 122 cases per 100,000; Kent County at 133 cases per; Berrien County at 144 cases per; and Oakland County with 139 cases per 100,000 people.
The analysis also shows that the age group of 30-39-year-olds had the highest level of new diagnoses in 2010 at 163 cases, followed by the 20-24-year-old age group at 128 cases followed by the 40-49-year-old age group at 125 new cases.
Of those newly identified cases, men who have sex with men represented 45 percent of the new infections; men who have sex with men and also are intravenous drug users represented 1 percent more for a total of 46 percent of cases linked to men who have sex with men statewide. Heterosexuals represented 13 percent of the new cases, with nine percent of those in women. In 35 percent of the new infections, it is undetermined how the virus was transmitted.
In Ingham county, 53 percent of the cases were in men who have sex with men, and another five percent in men who have sex with men who are intravenous drug users for a combined total of men who have sex with men of 58 percent. Women represented 22 percent of the cases in the county.
The new numbers have some activists alarmed and indicating an HIV crisis continues in the state.
"Every quarterly analysis that the Michigan Department of Community Health releases clearly shows that HIV/AIDS is still an epidemic of shattering proportions. Ingham County registers especially alarming trends," said Emily Dievendorf, policy director at Equality Michigan. "Unfortunately, most Michigan citizens don't read quarterly reports. This means that we all need to start acknowledging the fight we are up against, educating ourselves about prevention opportunities and how we can help each other, and talking about it – talking to anyone who will listen. Funding cuts to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs are just one major symptom of this lack of discourse that adds to the depth of the crisis."
With pressing budget deficits a proposal to slash HIV funding by cutting the Michigan Health Fund Initiative to fund airport upkeep was proposed by Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville.

Story originally published on http://www.michiganmessenger.com

Advertisement
Topics: News
Advertisement

From the Pride Source Marketplace

Go to the Marketplace
Directory default
Life can be challenging. Therapy can be life-changing. Live the life you were intended - happy,…
Learn More
Directory default
Blumz by JRDesigns is a full service floral, wedding and event planning company with two full…
Learn More
Advertisement