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The DATA reveals the Truth The Bronx which in the year 2000 had a total population of 1,332,650 people also had a total of 30,709 cumulative AIDS cases since 1981 till December 2005.(B) Of those 30,709 cases, 20, 348 were from males. Of those 20,348 male cases, 4489 were a result of MSM (Men having sex with men) and 10,795 were a result of Injection Drug Use (IDU). In all, males contributed about 66.26% of all AIDS cases in the Bronx. The remaining 33.7% (10,361) of all AIDS cases in the Bronx came from women. They had 4249 cumulative IDU transmissions. As well, females had 3694 transmission cases through heterosexual contact. In terms of race, there was a cumulative total of 13,070 Black AIDS cases, 15,537 Hispanic AIDS cases, 1,958 White AIDS cases and 144 AIDS cases of other races since 1981.(B,C) Please look at table 1 for this information Now for my zip code the numbers are a bit smaller. There was a cumulative 1479 AIDS cases from January 1981- December 2005. Of those 1479 cases, 977 of them were from males and 520 cases were from females. Males had 227 MSM cases, 522 IDU cases and 48 Heterosexual contact cases. Females had 218 IDU cases and 200 heterosexual contact cases. My first assumption that my area 10472 is mostly Hispanic was incorrect. At least, it would have been given the data for racial population in 2000. In this data it tells me that Blacks made up about 31% of the population in my area. Hispanics made up much less, about 29% of the total population in zip code. However, the cumulative AIDS data tells me that for my zip code 910 of the 1479 cases were Hispanic and 512 of the total cases were from Blacks. This left me asking, “How is it that the smaller population can still provide the most AIDS cases in my zip code? What are they doing?” However that is a topic for another paper. Whites made up 64 cases and other races constituted about 7 total cases. Please look at table 2 for this information.(B,C) Now when I looked at these numbers I asked myself, “What do these numbers mean and what is their significance?” I needed something to compare my information to. Therefore I looked up the New York state population and state HIV/AIDS data. In 2000 the New York state population was 18,976,457. The cumulative AIDS data from 1981- December 2005 states that New York had a cumulative total of 172,377 AIDS cases. The more information I gathered on NY, the more all these numbers began to confuse me and I was not able to see the comparison between my borough and the entire state. Thus I made them into rates based on a population of 100,000. This meant that NY had a cumulative AIDS rate of about 908.37. I did the same to the Bronx’s data and was shocked. The cumulative AIDS rate in the Bronx is about 2310.76. This means the Bronx, alone, has a cumulative AIDS rate that is more than twice that of the entire state. I was even more surprised that the AIDS rate for my zip code was also more than twice the AIDS rate of the entire state. I started to become worried and therefore I began to compare more AIDS data (i.e. mode of transmission, gender and race) from all these areas.(B,C,D)( The results I found were scary.( Please look at table 3 for this information I figured that since the United State has a much larger population it had to have a much higher number of AIDS cases and rate. In 2000 the U.S. population was 281, 421,906 and there was a cumulative total of 956,019 AIDS cases. I was once again astounded to find out that the U.S. had a AIDS rate of only 339.7. This means that the Bronx, and my zip code both had AIDS rates that were more than six times higher than the AIDS rate of the entire United States. I needed to see more. I wanted to know if the Bronx and my zip code had any other data that was higher than the nation’s. So then, I put the U.S. AIDS and population data into a table which allowed me to compare it to the AIDS data of my borough and zip code. (B,C) Please look at table 4 for this information
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