Critical Analysis of

 Health Issues: AIDS

 Since the AIDS rate in New Rochelle was low and seemingly under control (in comparison to the the average AIDS rate in the country) I decided instead to target a nearby neighborhood that had a significantly larger AIDS/HIV problem within its community. I found that the neighborhood with the highest AIDS rate in Westchester County also happened to be a neighborhood that is literally only ten minutes away from my house. The name of this neighborhood is Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon’s AIDS rate is about five times the national AIDS rate: 1,698.

Further looking at my data I wondered why there was such a high AIDS rate in Mount Vernon compared to the other zip codes. What I first took note of was the high population of people in Mount Vernon, 38284, compared to that of New Rochelle, 14131. Wondering if this newly formed observation meant anything I looked up another zip code with a similar population number. I found that a zip code that pertained to Yonkers had a close number of 2,502 AIDS cases. Although Yonkers is only thirteen minutes away from Mount Vernon its AIDS rate was 55, approximately 12 times less of Mount Vernon. By comparing the three areas with each other I came to realize that a prevalent difference existed between the community with the extremely high AIDS rate, Mount Vernon, and the two communities with a relatively low AIDS rate, New Rochelle and Yonkers. In comparing the PLWA rate of the community with the high AIDS rate and the two with a lower rate, I found that Mount Vernon had roughly a 300 case difference between Yonkers and New Rochelle. Similarly, the HIV rate in Mount Vernon was at 135 whereas Yonkers and New Rochelle fell into the one digit case range of 9 and 5.  This further established the fact that Mount Vernon had a large AIDS problem, and since HIV rates followed the same trend, the AIDS problem within Mount Vernon are more pronounced and will continue to be a problem in coming generations. When looking at the ethnic differences between the three neighborhoods the ethnicity distribution between Mount Vernon and Yonkers and New Rochelle were very marked. Mount Vernon is predominately made up of African Americans at 73% whereas both New Rochelle and Yonkers are predominantly White, New Rochelle at 90% and Yonkers at 77%.