Extensive research of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Queens has identified a variety of factors believed to contribute to the spread of this deadly disease. I have analyzed the effects of poverty and the infection rate by correlating it with median income. We have seen the affect race has on the spread of this disease and we have distinguished between the numbers of people living with AIDS (PLWA) and the cumulative AIDS rate. Now it is imperative that I focus on a specific group that will allow me to intervene in hopes of stopping the epidemic in my community. From my research, it seems that the population hit hardest by this epidemic is African Americans and a specific subgroup. This section of my research serves to identify what is currently being done to stop the epidemic, the flaws of that attempt, the area most affected and the population I will target. More importantly, this segment will map out a plan to confront this epidemic in my community.

            In queens, East Elmhurst (11370) is the area hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. Not only does it display the highest cumulative AIDS rate (Table 1), it also has the highest number of people living with AIDS (PLWA) (Table 3). It is clear that I must focus on this part of queens in order to have an impact in the fight against AIDS. Through research, I have found that there has been an effort to stop the epidemic in my community. The AIDS Center of Queens County (ACQC) was founded in October 1986 and has been providing services to people living with AIDS ever since. This organization provides educational outreach through prevention workshops and peer education. They provide individual therapy and psychiatric assessments, on site HIV testing, counseling as well as a number of harm reduction services. The program operates in Jamaica (11433), Corona (11368), Far Rockaway (11691) and Long Island City (11101).Coincidentally all locations are within close proximity of the highest affected areas. However, despite their efforts the cumulative AIDS rates and PLWA Rates in each zip code are relatively high.

There must be an issue that this program is not addressing. In an effort to find out why these programs are not effective, I called a representative from the program in Jamaica and I posed the following questions:

1)      How has the program reached out to members of the community?

2)      How have you attempted to help those who are afraid to visit the center?

Responses from the representative were very confusing he said “We don’t discriminate, We make sure it’s a good environment” clearly he couldn’t answer my questions. My statistics coupled with the responses I received from the representative prove that the problem in queens is not being addressed thoroughly enough. There is a group of people out there that are not being serviced by this organization.

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