Data And Stats

According to the CDC, one in 51 Georgians will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. In 2014 Georgia’s population was just over 10 million people. In 2013, Atlanta’s metro population was 5.6 million.
“Downtown Atlanta is as bad as Zimbabwe or Harare or Durban,” via a statement from Dr. Carlos del Rio, co-director of Emory University’s Center for AIDS Research.
In 2014 it was reported that Atlanta had the fifth highest rate of new HIV infections. And it continues to climb unabated.
Other data in the study suggests that the Southern region of the United States as a whole presents the highest risk of contracting HIV. Men who have sex with men had a 1 in 6 risk of getting the disease while heterosexual men possessed a 1 in 473 risk.
Gay black men in particular had a higher risk than their counterparts in other ethnicities. Black men who have sex with men had a 1 in 2 risk, Hispanic men a 1 in 4 risk and white men a 1 in 11 risk.
Increased heroin use in the suburban Atlanta could compound the problem and make HIV spread even more than it already has and is expected to, WXIA reported.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) damages specific cells of the immune system called CD4 cells. Untreated, HIV eventually overwhelms the immune system,
resulting in a chronic life-threatening condition called acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In this report, the term HIV infection refers to HIV diagnoses regardless of stage of disease; that is, HIV infection includes HIV (not AIDS) and AIDS. Based on the CD4 count (cells/ml), HIV infection is defined as Stage 1 (CD4>500 cells/ml), Stage 2 (CD4 200-499 cells/ml) and Stage 3 (AIDS)
There is no cure for HIV infection, but with antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV infection can be controlled. Advances in HIV treatment with ART have led to improved quality of life and prolonged lifespan for people living with HIV. Further, achieving viral suppression with effective ART use reduces HIV transmission due to decreased levels of circulating virus.

HIV infection remains an important public health problem in the state of Georgia. In 2015, Georgia was ranked the fifth-highest in the nation for the total number of new diagnoses of HIV infection among adults and adolescents after Florida, California, Texas, and New York1
. There were 2,741 new diagnoses of HIV infection during 2015 in Georgia. The majority of these new diagnoses were among males (80%). The highest percentage of new HIV diagnoses and Stage 3 (AIDS) diagnoses was seen among those aged 30 to 39
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV Surveillance Report, 2015; vol.27. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdchiv-surveillance-report-2015-vol-27.pdf.
years of age, 22% and 26%, respectively. Among all races/ethnicities, Black/non-Hispanics accounted for the majority of diagnoses (72% of new HIV infections and 73% of Stage 3 (AIDS)). Eighty-three percent (1,849) of new HIV infections among Georgia males during 2015 were attributed to male to male sexual (MSM) contact. Among women, 90% (473) of new HIV diagnoses were attributed to heterosexual contact.
As of December 31, 2015, there were 54,754 persons living with diagnosed HIV infection in Georgia. Similar to the new diagnoses of HIV infection, the majority of prevalent cases are among Black/Non-Hispanic persons (67%) and males (75%). Seventy-eight percent (32,429) of prevalent HIV cases among males were attributed to MSM sexual contact and 82% (10,873) of cases among females were attributed to heterosexual contact. Monitoring the HIV/AIDS epidemic and understanding the burden of HIV infection in Georgia are essential for meeting the goals stated in the 2020 National HIV/AIDS Strategy to: 1) reduce HIV infections; 2) increase access to care and optimize health outcomes for persons living with HIV; 3) reduce HIV-related health disparities, and; 4) achieve a more coordinated national response to the HIV epidemic2