Petrelis Files

New HIV/AIDS Stats Drop in Florida

Some glimmers of hope in controlling and preventing new HIV and AIDS cases in the Sunshine State? The answer is apparently yes, for the time being. From the March 13 edition of The Ledger:

Florida had a 12 percent decline in AIDS cases in 2005, from 5,517 in 2004 to 4,869, and an 8 percent drop in HIV diagnoses, from 6,110 to 5,621.

While encouraged by the large decrease in new cases among blacks, [state HIV expert] Lieb hesitated to read too much into the overall 2005 drop in AIDS cases. A lower AIDS total in 2005 is understandable because the 2004 number was such a large increase, Lieb said.

"It was like a spike in cases," he said.

Why might the stats be down?

Keith Boyd, one of the Polk County Health Department's longtime AIDS outreach workers, said he's seen better response to its testing and awareness efforts.

"It's because of the intensity of what we've been doing, getting out into communities, getting people more aware," he said.

Groups in black communities, locally and statewide, have become more vocal about the dangers of HIV/AIDS.

An example came in early December when the missionary society of New Bethel AME Church in Lakeland, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Health Department sponsored an AIDS forum.

Billboards aimed at black women with the message "Sistahs Getting Real About HIV/AIDS" were posted in Lakeland and Winter Haven about the same time. The Black AIDS Institute and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Polk County chapter, sponsored them.

Those groups want people to realize that AIDS affects the black community heavily.

Would be a positive development if the Hispanic HIV rate were declining in this county, but at least it's not increasing.

The percentage of Hispanics among people newly diagnosed with HIV stayed fairly constant in Polk County, 16 percent to 17 percent, in 2004 and 2005.

There's an effort under way, however, for state funding to make local Hispanics more aware of their risk. Rep. Marty Bowen, R-Haines City, is supporting a $350,000 proposal for AIDS education for Polk minority groups.

I wonder what the president's brother's role has been in reducing HIV in Florida lately.

The Florida Legislature approved a Polk County AIDS Initiative last year, but Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed that budget item. A Miami-area group that did AIDS education for Hispanics in Dade and Orange counties would have led the initiative.

Can we expect HIV and AIDS stats to remain stable or further decline?

With the number of new cases fluctuating, what's likely to happen in the next couple of years?

The numbers likely will go up, Lieb said, as changes in defining infection include some people missed in earlier counts.

That will blur health planners' ability to interpret what the numbers -- up or down -- will mean.

Only time will tell if the small drops seen in the latest epidemiology for Florida are an isolated development, or part of a declining trend.