With less than a third of the nation’s population, the South has over half of all new HIV infections in the country. The South is the new epicenter of HIV transmission. South Carolina is 9th in the nation for HIV rates and the bad news is that people with AIDS in the South are much more likely to die of it.
Why is HIV spreading so fast here?
There are markers like our education scores, our poverty levels,and the rural populations with little access to doctors.
Those making under $10,000 are three times more likely to get HIV than those making $50,000+. People making under $10,000 a year can’t afford medicine and doctor visits, they can’t afford to be driven to where they can get tested and get treatment.
And in the South, poverty ranks high among blacks. According to the Washington Post, one in five gay black men in the south has HIV. 25% of people with HIV in SC live in rural areas, care for people far from urban centers is difficult, even more so when your state refuses to fund or accept funding to help them.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports there are an estimated 15,000 people living with the infection in South Carolina. The CDC believes this is a disease of poverty but also one of stigma. People in the South are more reticent to get tested than in other places, particularly in African-American communities.
HIV Statistics for SC:
Who has HIV:
04.6% are white women (34.7% of population)
19.4% are white men (33.8% of population)
25.0% are black women (14.2% of population)
46.9% are black men (14.9% of population)
Demographics of the state:
34.7% are white women
33.8% are white men
14.2% are black women
14.9% are black men
(15% of the population makes up almost half the HIV cases)
Percentage of Population w/HIV:
0.04% of white women
0.19% of white men
1.07% of black men
0.51% of black women
Or look at it this way:
1 in 100 black men
1 in 200 black women
1 in 600 white men
1 in 2500 white women
Or look at it this way:
White men are 4.3 times as likely to get HIV than white women.
Black women are 12 times more likely to get HIV than white women, and 2.7 times more likely to get HIV than white men.
Black men are 25 times more likely to get HIV than white women, 5.7 times more likely to get HIV than white men, and over twice as likely to get HIV than black women.
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