Yeah, The Museum of Discovery in Science is proud to bring you
wise bodies presented by AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Yeah, Since the global epidemic began,
over 32 million people have died from AIDS related illness.
And while annual mortality rates have been reduced by 60% since peaking in
2000 and four, an average of over 600,000 people
still die each year from AIDS related illness around the world.
In the United States, over one million people are currently living with
HIV or AIDS, with nearly 40,000 new diagnoses
every year. The Southern United States, including
Florida, is home to nearly half of the people living with HIV in the
country, with Miami and Fort Lauderdale being among the highest rates.
Anyone can contract HIV and AIDS regardless of
age, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Why is South Florida such an active spot for high HIV cases? The
more people are concentrated in one area that already are living with
HIV, the more chances new people can be getting HIV. If those
people don't know it, they're not in care. They're not practicing safe
as far as Florida. Um, the highest rates are in these three
counties Miami Dade, followed by Broward, followed by Palm Beach.
Broward sometimes gets actually ahead of Miami Dade. Part of the
reason why there's such high rates in places like Miami Dade in
South Florida, Broward County in South Florida is because people are not
talking about their status and they're not talking about their status because they're not getting
tested. Let's take a look back at what brought us to the point where
today HIV seems to have entered the human
race at the turn of the 20th century. In the early 19
hundreds, when the simian immunodeficiency virus
acquired a precise set of mutations,
allowing it to be passed from eighth to
man. This began in northwest Africa and
traveled through different tribes to the south until it eventually
reached the city of Consomme. Aja, the capital of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, a dense population and
very interconnected waterways, trains roads
that allowed for movement, mass transport of lots
of people. It was this way that the fuse of
HIV, which was lit when the virus was
transferred from eight to man in West Africa,
exploded into what is now one of the greatest
pandemics the world has ever seen. Mhm. Yeah.
So to visualize how a virus like HIV can spread across the
world, picture maybe how streams might form in a watershed.
So take this table, for instance. We have a stream table here filled with sand
streams are going to form where gravity in the shape of the land allow the
water to flow. Much like a virus is able to spread through a
community where people interact in a way that it can be transmitted.
Once a stream is formed, it can be as difficult to contain as a virus
that has spread through a community. Yeah, Yeah.
Why is South Florida so high? Um, in cases of HIV, a lot of
people that come in and out for travel. We also have a lot of people that
go in and out from the jail systems that can bring it back to
their community. And we also have, um, a lot of people
who belong to the LGBT community. Um, and
in that community there are higher rates of HIV and so there could be more
transmission. If I move outside of South Florida, do I still have to
be careful So you have to be careful anywhere, right? It's
about what you do with people. And so if you move out of South Florida, there's
still HIV all over the world. Um, so if you're gonna be having
unprotected, then you're putting yourself at risk. So I would say you need to be
safe no matter where you live, knowing your status is very
important. South Florida, Broward County and Miami Dade are the
number one in the nation for newly diagnosed
HIV cases. Knowing your status is very
important, we need to always be responsible. So knowing your status is
very important. We don't have actual statistics as
to why it's so high here. So just please know your status
and just stay safe and use condoms.
South Florida HIV infection rates
among the highest in the country. And why is
that? You know, I think one of the things that we can do through the
Wise Bodies program is investigate different theories.
Wise bodies addresses the fact that
HIV AIDS impacts everyone. Yeah,
it impacts everyone, regardless of
who you are, where you're from, regardless of
your gender, regardless of your sexual preference, regardless
of your ethnic background. So we really want you
to think through why. Why is
South Florida facing such an
HIV infection rate? And what can you
do to help bring those numbers down?
Mhm,