Treatment for HIV/AIDS has come a long way from the days of taking handfuls of medication with plenty of side effects, but the disease remains at epidemic levels. According to Dr. Laura Cheever, AIDS expert at the Health Resources and Services Administration, "people are living long healthy lives, but people are continuing to get infected."
Tuesday is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Those needing HIV services can go to locator.hiv.gov.
According to the Atlanta-based CDC Blacks and African-Americans make up 13-percent of the U.S. population, yet account for 40-percent of those with HIV.
Dr. Cheever provides startling facts for heterosexual women
What will happen if current rates of infection continue?
"There's a lot of HIV in Georgia, but particularly in Atlanta," says Cheever. In 2020 in Atlanta, Cheever says "there were about 38,000 people living with HIV. In Georgia there were about 57,500 people living with HIV."
What precautions should the sexually-active be taking?
Listen to full interview with Dr. Cheever below
"We've never had such high rates of all sexually transmitted diseases in this country as we have right now." Cheever recommends that sexually active individuals take the medication prEP to prevent getting HIV, and use condoms to prevent things like syphilis and gonorrhea.