Understanding HIV in America: Five ways to learn more using AIDSVu

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy emphasizes the importance of intensifying our efforts in the areas where HIV is most heavily concentrated. AIDSVuExit Disclaimer, an online, interactive mapping website, helps us to identify those communities most impacted by the HIV epidemic. Launched in 2010 by the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, in partnership with Gilead Sciences, Inc., AIDSVu visualizes the most up-to-date information about HIV in our states, counties, and cities.

People around the country have found creative and innovative ways to use AIDSVuExit Disclaimer, here are five ways that you can use the maps and data to help to understand and combat HIV in America.

1. View your city: This year on National HIV Testing Day, AIDSVu released ZIP-code-level mapsExit Disclaimer to direct HIV testing providers to those city blocks most impacted by HIV and conduct door-to-door HIV testing as part of a geo-informed testing campaignExit Disclaimer.
2. Understand the community: City and state profilesExit Disclaimer use graphics and text to summarize the impact of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases on the city or state as a whole.
3. Find HIV testing and care service locations: AIDSVu provides local information about HIV testing and medical care services locationsExit Disclaimer, state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs waiting lists, and NIH-funded HIV prevention, vaccine and treatment trials locations.
4. Visualize the national HIV epidemic and new diagnoses: The interactive maps allow users to view national new HIV diagnoses and HIV prevalence data by race/ethnicity, sex and age, and to see HIV prevalence alongside various social determinants of health, such as education and poverty. A community-based organizationExit Disclaimer in Alabama used the AIDSVu prevalence data and other public data to determine where to place telemedicine centersExit Disclaimer to connect people living with HIV in rural areas to HIV specialists.
5. Share the data: Slide sets of the various maps, HIV infographics and data setsExit Disclaimer are freely available for download to help educate others about the HIV epidemic.

By understanding which of our communities are most impacted by HIV, we will be more successful in meeting our national goals. We are excited to see what new and creative ways you use AIDSVu data to combat HIV. Share your story with us: https://aidsvu.org/contact-us/Exit Disclaimer.Editor’s note: We have blogged on other similar online HIV mapping tools and encourage our readers to also see this post about CDC Atlas, which features county-level HIV and STD data.