Statewide AIDS Cases Show Downturn
Hartford, Conn. – Data released today by the Connecticut Department of Public Health shows a slight downturn in the overall number of new statewide AIDS cases.
The data represents the first six months of 2007, with 233 cases reported. If current trends continue and the data is extrapolated to represent a full year, the number of cases will decrease from 540 in 2006 to 466 in 2007, a 14 percent decline. Hartford will see the only increase, going from 88 cases in 2006 to 108 in 2007, a 23 percent uptick.
Despite the decrease, Connecticut is still, “considered one of the top 10 states with people living with AIDS,” according to the Alliance for Living, a New London-based nonprofit organization. The Alliance’s website shows Connecticut’s case rate as 28 percent higher than the national average, 21.1 per 100,000 compared to 15.2 nationally.
Connecticut’s eight largest cities (in order: Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury and New Britain) combine to account for approximately 70 percent of new AIDS cases every year. The trend is noteworthy because while they represent such a large portion of these cases, they only compose about 25 percent of the state’s overall population (838,424 of 3,405,565 people, according to the 2000 US Census).
Outside these cities, the number of AIDS cases is consistently much lower. Between 2002 and 2006, the percent of cases in the rest of Connecticut ranged from a low of 29 percent in 2002 to a high of 34 percent in 2006. If they continue at their current rate, 2007’s numbers will end in the middle at around 32 percent.
A reason for the disparity could be that minority populations tend to be much larger in urban areas. Such communities’ struggles to contain and combat the disease and its spread are well documented.
“The disease is entirely preventable,” said Sandy Brindamour, the Alliance for Living’s executive director. Even so, she added AIDS is still, “growing exponentially in the minority community.”
Brindamour provides a staggering set of statistics to this point. For every white male with AIDS in Connecticut, there are three Latinos and seven African American men with the disease. For every white woman with AIDS in the state, there are six Latinas and 23 African American women with the disease.
“Much of it comes from the denial in the minority communities about taking responsibility,” Brindamour says. She indicates that, “the way to combat it is to dispel the stigmas of having the disease,” some of which go so far as to include the belief that wearing prophylactics of any kind are a tacit admission of having AIDS.
They are stigmas that organizations like the Alliance for Living are working hard to eliminate. The Alliance also focuses on “improving the quality of life for people affected by HIV/AIDS,” which not only helps the afflicted, but also their friends and family who may have trouble understanding or coping with the ramifications of the disease.
For more information, The Alliance for Living can be contacted by telephone at: 860-447-0884 or by email at: alliance.for.living@snet.net.
