Good Morning Bloggers. I am still hanging In there in my HIV class. The work is really starting to pile on. The good thing though is the fact that I am still very interested in everything that we have to do, therefore the work does not much like work all the time. Well this week our question of the week was asking student how we felt about the University sharing a student’s results with other students because the student tested positive for HIV and was still having unprotected sex with other students. The question was a good one and it got me to thinking. Then I wondered just how many people at UCF may actually have HIV or AIDS. So I researched it and although I was not able to find UCF’s specific statistics I was able to at least able to see what the stats are for Florida.
Did you know?
In Florida alone in the year 2006 there were 5,550 Floridians who became infected with HIV. The estimated amount of people that became infected in 2006 was every 36.4 out of 100,000 and they ranged from ages 13 and up. This is 60% higher than the 22.8 of every 100,000 people or the national rate. Can you believe it Florida’s rate of infection is way out of hand. In Florida since 1997 until 2006 statistic show that 37,184 Floridians became infected. In 2006 72% of the newly infected were males, 48% African Americans, 33% from ages 13-29 and 58% were gay males. As far as for African Americans in 2006 123.7 out of 100,000 were infected which was six times the amount of whites at 18.8 and almost four times the amount of Hispanics at 32.0. The article said that only 14% of Floridians are African American yet in 2006 African Americans made up 48% of the population that became infected.
Now I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m an African American woman and these statistics scare me. I don’t understand why it is affecting our community so much more. I mean we have the same amount of information and protection available to us as every other race yet we continue to infect each other. This is not to offend anyone but BLACK PEOPLE WE NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER GET TESTED AND USE PROTECTION PLEASE!
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Those are staggering numbers despite your race, but your right. The same goes for my latinos, there might be a bit of a language barrier but geez come on people. I'm taking a health economics class too and it all revolves around socioeconomics. If the finances aren't in order then you're more likely not to get any medical care at all. I'm sure in impoverished areas of Florida and the country for that matter it boils down to instant gratification with no concern for lasting consequences. who really knows though?
ReplyDeleteFor me that question of the week was rather interesting, I wasn't exactly sure what to say at first. When it comes to the subject of revealing personal information my opinion is usually torn. However for this particular situation I feel that the safety of others is more important than keeping personal information confidential.
ReplyDeleteI found the facts and statistics in your blog to be very interesting. I too did a little research on HIV cases in Fl and the numbers suprised me a lot. I even looked a little further in my search and actually pulled information on my county that I current live in and the numbers scared me seriously. My focus this semester is African American Women suffering with HIV so I definitely look forward to all the new information I can find.
ReplyDeleteNICE BLOG!!
Why don't you reserach why African American women are more at risk for HIV. You may be very surprised at the results. Ask around in your circle of friends and with older women and see what they think the answer is.
ReplyDeleteFlorida has always had numbers that outstrip the nation in all areas.