Core 116

The Problem of AIDS Prevention in Connecticut

             For more than two decades, since the outbreak of the virus in the early 1980s, the state of Connecticut has struggled in its attempts to both contain and control the AIDS epidemic. Despite continued funding for educational programs and various other preventative measures, the state has failed to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and is, instead, facing new crises of infection among intravenous drug users (IDUs) and the African American and Hispanic communities. While both the state government and private advocacy groups have succeeded, at least to some extent, in raising awareness among the gay community, they have hit a roadblock when it comes to educating the majority of groups infected with HIV/AIDS.(26)

This is especially true in the city of Bridgeport, where the cumulative AIDS rate is more than three times the national average. Despite these astonishing statistics, and the presence of large African American and Hispanic populations (35.6%, 32.4% of the population respectively) (23), Public Health officials in the past have failed to implement an effective prevention plan for those communities and groups most directly affected by the spreading virus.

Such disregard for this growing problem cannot, however, continue much longer. Instead of focusing attention on the white gay population, future Public Health officials will have to institute a strategy aimed at those groups most at-risk. The plan for Bridgeport should include both a Needle Exchange Program (operating out of mobile van) and a series of risk reduction intervention meetings separately targeting the African American and Hispanic communities. (25)