The United States Deep South continues to experience a heavy HIV burden including outside the large urban areas (≥ 500,000 population.) A new Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative (SASI) report and six individual state reports (AL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC) break down the percentage of key populations most impacted by the epidemic who live outside the large urban areas in Deep South States, in particular Black/African American populations, Men who have Sex with Men/Same Gender Loving Men, Women, Youth, and Injection Drug Users. In recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided direct HIV prevention funding only to community-based organizations located in the large urban areas. As this new report demonstrates, there is a need for increased federal funding to community-based organizations located outside the large cities if we are to reach those most impacted by HIV and gain control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South and nationally.

View the report.