Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - June 22, 2009
Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer
County-level data on the intensity of AIDS and HIV cases, as well as statistics by age, gender and ethnicity, can be found through a new HIV/AIDS Atlas being launched today by the National Minority Quality Forum, a Washington, D.C., group.
The online tool, available at www.mapHIV.org, contains detailed information about HIV and AIDS in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The information becomes available to the public for the first time in a single location, according to the group, which helps track death and disease in minorities and other special populations.
"For the first time, we actually know where the patients are," said Gary Puckrein, chief executive officer of the National Minority Quality Forum, which has created online atlases for other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.
The information helps improve data collection and analysis, prevention initiatives, early diagnosis and routine testing efforts in the hardest-hit communities, he said.
"With all this talk about health care and access, we've done a very poor job of measuring things," he said. "Because you don't measure, you make lots of assumptions about where the disease is."
Using the HIV/AIDS Atlas, people can search by county and narrow their field by gender, age and ethnicity. The results will come up on color-coded maps, with the hot spots in red and regions with the lowest prevalence in green.
The atlas counts the number of patients relative to the population, not the overall number of patients.
"When you do this, you begin to see the disease in different ways, and communities pop up on the radar screen we haven't noticed," Puckrein said.
The level of information varies, with eight states providing state-level information and 29 states offering data at the county level.
While New York City is the only region with ZIP code-level data, users can view many counties by congressional and state legislative districts. The atlas' creators stressed that it is an evolving tool and they will incorporate new data when available.
"This, in a very graphic way, helps decision-makers to see what is happening in their jurisdictions," said Dana Van Gorder, executive director of Project Inform in San Francisco, who previewed the map. He said San Francisco has data available by ZIP code that are not yet included in the atlas.
"Data like that clearly helps states and counties to understand exactly where their HIV and AIDS cases are so they can respond appropriately with services," he said.
Health experts welcomed the new tool as a way to help them increase awareness of the disease and better direct their funds for services.
"If you're talking about developing prevention services specifically for women, you would want to put the services somewhere where women with HIV are," said Wayne Steward, co-director of UCSF AIDS Policy Research Center.
The HIV/AIDS Atlas relied primarily on 2006 data collected from states and cross-checked the information with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Minority Quality Forum partnered with the George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services to collect and analyze the data.
E-mail Victoria Colliver at vcolliver@sfchronicle.com.
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