AIDS in Montgomery County
One of the first questions of interest is “Where are the AIDS cases in Montgomery County?” In this section we will determine where the cases are around this county and the rates of AIDS within each town, and, more specifically, each zip code. But before exploring the whereabouts of these cases, it is imperative to distinguish what these numbers mean. The values obtained are the number of cumulative AIDS cases since 1980, which includes deaths since then. Therefore this number includes the number of individuals currently living with AIDS and the number of cases in which people have died by AIDS. Additionally, while these numbers are certainly accurate, one factor that must remain in consideration is that there is certainly the possibility that the individual could have contracted HIV elsewhere and then moved into the county, and thus the case would be counted for Montgomery County upon the development of AIDS. The reverse could also have occurred. An individual may have contracted AIDS but moved out of the county. These are a few of the considerations one must take into account when exploring the number of cases and the different rates of AIDS.
AIDS in Montgomery County, Maryland
As seen from the Zip Codes page, 90% of the zip codes in Montgomery County have an AIDS rate that is less than the national AIDS rate of 339 cases per 100,000 population, and all are less than the rate for the state of Maryland, being 533. The average rate in Montgomery County is 276, which is almost twice as less as the state rate. What may account for this very high rate is the various other counties in Maryland. In particular, the city of Baltimore is likely to have a much higher rate than other counties due to the surrounding impoverished communities that may cause the overall state rate to be that much greater. The rate of AIDS in Maryland, alone, is cause for closer examination of AIDS transmission, treatment, and prevention programs state-wide in an attempt to reduce this rate.
Some of the towns within Montgomery County with a higher than average AIDS rate include Cabin John, Barnesville, Dickerson, Spencerville, Kensington and Silver Spring. The AIDS rates for most of these towns ranging from 302 to 500, however, can be disregarded as often there are 1-6 cases in a very small population area, thus producing a higher rate. Therefore only Kensington and Silver Spring are towns with unusually higher rates of 305 and 485, respectively, compared with the remainder of the county. One explanation for this may be the close proximity to Washington, D.C., as shown on the map available. As shown, the Silver Spring zip codes border the state line and may reflect rates in the adjacent district.
While the actual rates of each zip code are generally lower than both the state and the national average for AIDS rates, what is most interesting about this information is the actual prevalence of cases. This suburb is one of the more affluent counties in the country, which causes suspicion for why Rockville, for example, averages almost 45 cases per zip code2. There are even parts of Gaithersburg, specifically zip codes 20877, 20878 and 20879, which have 80 to 100 AIDS cases. This would certainly be an area to investigate as the rate for 20879 alone is 469 which is certainly higher than the national average. Moreover, Silver Spring has upwards of 150 to 200 cases per zip code highlighting yet another area of interest as to why there are so many cases for a seemingly wealthy town. The next step in understanding the rates of AIDS in Montgomery County would be to explore the per capita income within each zip code, and how this compares on a national and state level, and whether this information shows any correlation to the number of AIDS cases.
The Data
