A new report from the Florida Department of Health suggests rates of HIV and AIDS among gay and bisexual men are not declining in the state as hoped.

In fact, the report estimated 1 in 22 gay and bisexual men in Florida were living with the virus last year, a rate far higher than any other group of people. In some areas, the numbers are even higher: 1 in 11 gay white men in Broward County were found to have HIV or AIDS last year, according to the report, while 1 in 12 gay Hispanic men in Miami-Dade County were living with the virus last year.

The least affected group in the state, according to Florida Department of Health officials, are white women, 1 in 1,625 of whom had the virus in 2006.

Although some AIDS activists question the validity of the report, they agree that the statistics are alarming all the same.

"Obviously, our programs are not working the way we would like," Lorenzo Robinson of the Palm Beach County Health Department, the state's coordinator for gay black men, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel following the report’s release.

Christopher Lacharite, an HIV patient and prevention coordinator at Compass, a gay organization in Palm Beach County, suggested there are many reasons some portions of the gay community ignore the warnings activists and experts have been trumpeting over the years.

"There's no gay man who doesn't know having unprotected sex can lead to HIV. But sometimes they ignore it, and that's what we have not been able to address," Lacharite told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=17249

They are some crazy figures :eek:

Kind of makes you wonder if the State should have more safe sex commercials airing.

Regards,

Lee