Core 116

My Theory on Why Specific Towns are Suffering Under an AIDS Epidemic

      For more than two decades, since the outbreak of the virus in the early 1980s, the state of Connecticut, and specifically Fairfield County, has struggled in its attempts to both contain and control the AIDS epidemic. Although the problem with containment arises from a variety of sources, one of the most influential has been the county’s inability to effectively identify those communities and groups most directly affected by the spreading virus.

     Despite Fairfield County’s proximity to New York City’s gay community, and the earliest American victims of the disease, the majority of Connecticut men are not acquiring the disease through MSM. Instead, it is the African American and Hispanic communities, along with intravenous drug users, who seem to represent the largest percentages of HIV/AIDS victims. Through the use of previous research on HIV/AIDS statistics in Connecticut, and a study of various correlations between AIDS and race, income, and education, I will attempt to prove that the data supports my assumption that Connecticut AIDS victims are typically from areas which not only maintain high percentages of African Americans and Hispanics, but also suffer from poverty, a lack of education, and drug abuse violations.