Submitted by admin on Wed, 2007-03-14 08:00. ::
The drop continues a downward trend since 2002, the peak for HIV cases in the state and South Florida. The three counties for years have ranked in the nation's top 10 in HIV/AIDS cases per capita.
Officials said last year's decline in HIV was strong among African-Americans, who account for about half of the new HIV infections in South Florida and the state, although an exact breakdown was not available.
Broward agencies have dispatched HIV educators to non-traditional spots in the community trying to reach people they couldn't reach at meetings, churches and health fairs. Some days, counselors talk about safe sex and infections to a few people at a time at barbershops, restaurants, malls and other locales.
"This is finally working," said Francois Leconte, chairman of the Broward County HIV Planning Council. "This is not at the level where we want it to be but at least when you see the numbers going down, that gives you hope."
New cases of full AIDS dropped by 5 percent in Broward, but edged upward by 4 percent in Palm Beach County and statewide. AIDS cases tell less about the spread of the virus, health officials said, because HIV patients can decline in health and convert to AIDS at any time, for a variety of reasons.
Health officials have noted more AIDS cases than they expected in the past few years as medicines stop working for people, and others who had dropped out of medical care resurface with AIDS symptoms.
But spikes in HIV that appeared three to four years ago -- widely attributed to cavalier attitudes toward unsafe sex, especially among some gay men -- seem to be calming, said Spencer Lieb, a senior epidemiologist at the state Department of Health.
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