New maps depict impact of HIV in America

AIDSVu -- the most detailed publicly available view of HIV prevalence in the United States -- is a compilation of interactive online maps that display HIV prevalence data at the national, state and local levels and by different demographics, including age, race and sex. The maps pinpoint areas of the country where the rates of people living with an HIV diagnosis are the highest. These areas include urban centers in the Northeast and the South, and visualize where the needs for prevention, testing, and treatment services are the most urgent.

"Our National HIV/AIDS Strategy calls for reducing new HIV infections by intensifying our efforts in HIV prevention where the epidemic is most concentrated. AIDSVu provides a roadmap to identifying those high-prevalence areas of the HIV epidemic and showing where the local testing resources are located," says Patrick S. Sullivan, PhD, DVM, professor of epidemiology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, and the principal researcher for AIDSVu. "The addition of new city data means that AIDSVu now displays data from 20 U.S. cities. This expanded city information is critical because most HIV diagnoses in the United States occur in cities."

The free, interactive online tool's new data and features include:

• National maps displaying 2010 data at the state-and county-level, the most recent national HIV prevalence data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• Interactive maps of HIV prevalence data by census tract for Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

• New ZIP code level maps for five U.S. cities -- Memphis, Orlando, San Diego, Tampa and Virginia Beach; and updated ZIP code maps for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles County, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan and Washington, D.C.

• HIV prevalence maps alongside social determinants of health -- poverty, lack of health insurance, median household income, educational attainment and income inequality -- in side-by-side map views for 20 cities, in addition to the existing state views.

AIDSVu maps illustrate the geographic variations in the HIV epidemic across the United States:

• The national map shows significantly higher rates of people living with HIV in the Northeast and the South than in much of the rest of the country. AIDSVu's city maps demonstrate that, in many cities, there is a pattern of heavily impacted urban cores with relatively lower impact in areas further from city centers.

• The data on AIDSVu's maps can be viewed by race/ethnicity. AIDSVu shows that HIV disproportionately affects black and Hispanic/Latino Americans, and that these disparities exist in both major metropolitan areas and rural areas.

• AIDSVu also provides downloadable and printable resources -- including slide sets of the various map views available on the site -- to help those who work in HIV prevention and treatment educate others about the U.S. epidemic.