AIDS Deaths Drop in Polk, Florida

AIDS deaths went down in Polk County, Fla., last year, reverting to 1999 levels. Polk had 32 deaths in 2001, down from 40 deaths in 2000 -- down 66 percent from the peak of 94 deaths in 1994. Florida had 1,658 deaths, down from 1,809 in 2000, and up slightly from 1,651 in 1999. The figures indicate the steep decline in deaths of the mid-1990s is over, said Spencer Lieb, epidemiologist with the state's HIV/AIDS bureau. "This is looked at as a leveling trend," he said. "We have to keep monitoring it."

The impact of AIDS on blacks, who comprise 13.5 percent of Polk's population, has been disproportionately high for years. Blacks were more than half (22, or 55 percent) of 40 Polk residents who died from the disease in 2000. Statewide, 53 percent of new AIDS cases reported in 2001 were among blacks, who are about 15 percent of Florida's population. Whites were 31 percent of AIDS cases. Hispanics were 16 percent.

Luster All-Pastoral Care in Bartow and the Health Department sponsored a community mobilization meeting last September that was one of ten linked to the Florida HIV/AIDS Minority Network. At that meeting, where at least three-fourths of about 60 attendees were black, participants recommended more workshops aimed at teens and parents; more involvement by pastors and churches; a stronger community network; and more minority representation on committees deciding how AIDS funds are allocated. Some new outreach this year has come from those meetings.

"We have been invited in to do several workshops in the community," said Delores Joiner, community health executive director for LAPC and District 14 community representative for people living with AIDS in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. At a prayer service in Haines City, she said, everyone attending agreed to AIDS testing. And when information on HIV/AIDS was given at some children's vacation Bible school programs this summer, adults attended the classes, too.

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