On Monday, the Washington, D.C.-based National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) launched a new online tool for tracking HIV/AIDS in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Although New York City is the only region with data searchable by ZIP code, users can view prevalence data for many counties by congressional and state legislative districts.
"For the first time, we actually know where the patients are," said Gary Puckrein, NMQF's CEO. The organization has created similar atlases for other conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Such portals help improve data collection and analysis, prevention efforts, early diagnosis, and routine testing initiatives in hard-hit communities, he said.
The HIV/AIDS Atlas allows users to search by location and narrow their field by age, gender, and ethnicity. The site provides color-coded maps - showing hot spots in red and regions with the lowest prevalence in green - and 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," said Puckrein.
The site will evolve and include new data as they become available, said NMQF.
Health experts welcomed the site as a tool to boost HIV/AIDS awareness and to help better direct resources. "This, in a very graphic way, helps decision-makers to see what is happening in their jurisdictions," said Dana Van Gorder, executive director of San Francisco's Project Inform.
To access the atlas, visit www.mapHIV.org.
06/22/09
UNITED STATES: Web Map Details HIV Data by State
Source: San Francisco Chronicle:: Victoria Colliver; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention