Grants Set to Boost AIDS Fight in U.S. South

A $3 million HIV/AIDS grant program announced Wednesday by the Pfizer Foundation could help curtail the epidemic among minorities in the South, community groups said. The three-year program -- to be allocated in grants of about $50,000 a year to roughly 20 groups -- follows a report last month highlighting the heavy burden of AIDS in the South, especially among African Americans. "Comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention programs focused on communities most at risk are our best defense against this deadly disease," said Hank McKinnell, CEO of Pfizer. The South represents one-third of the nation's residents but 40 percent of people with AIDS and 46 percent of new AIDS cases, according to the recent report by the Southern AIDS Coalition. Blacks make up one-fifth of the people in the region but half of those with the disease, the report said. In metro Atlanta, blacks account for 29 percent of the population and 75 percent of those with AIDS.

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