HIV In America Is Increasingly A Southern Problem

Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses are in the South, as are the 10 metropolitan statistical areas with the highest rates. Metro Atlanta has the fifth-highest rate of new infections.

Niranjan Shrestha / Associated Press

The numbers tell an alarming story: How the South is the U.S. epicenter of the HIV epidemic.

Half of the new HIV diagnoses occur in the South, as well as half of the AIDS-related deaths. And the region has just one-third of the U.S. population.

Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses are in the South, as are the 10 metropolitan statistical areas with the highest rates. Metro Atlanta has the fifth-highest rate of new infections.