I thought that New Hampshire would have about 500 cumulative AIDS cases. While I was correct in believing it was well below the national average, I underestimated the total number of cumulative AIDS cases (Table 1). This was likely due to the limited coverage of AIDS in my home state. My estimate was much closer to the number of people currently living with HIV, which I’m attributing to dumb luck (Table 5).

        I guessed that the main mode of transmission was heterosexual sex. I thought drug use would be second and men having sex with other men third. I'm sure my health education, or lack thereof, influenced why I was so wrong about the mode of transmission. As it turns out, New Hampshire has a higher percentage of cumulative AIDS cases from MSM contact than the national average (Tables 6 and 7).

        I thought that the number of cumulative AIDS cases for females would be roughly equivalent to that of males. This is also indicative of not knowing how AIDS was primarily transmitted, especially in the early stages of the epidemic. When the cumulative AIDS cases are broken down by gender, New Hampshire's statistics are identical to the national picture (Tables 1 and 2).

        I was surprised by the age distribution of the cumulative AIDS cases. I thought the AIDS cases would be much more skewed towards the younger age groups. Even in the last five years, the majority of new AIDS cases were in individuals thirty and older (Table 8). This is also the case at the national level. Though, nationally over the past five years, there has been an increase in AIDS cases in those 19 and under (Table 9). This hasn't been the case in the granite state. Between 2001-2005, New Hampshire only had one AIDS case in someone under the age of 19. That case was in an individual under the age of five ⁽⁷⁾.

        I had no idea that there was such a racial disparity in the number of cumulative AIDS cases in New Hampshire. The black cumulative AIDS rate for blacks is almost fourteen times higher than the white rate (Table 3). It seems that even if the statistic was adjusted for income level and location it would still be much higher than the cumulative AIDS rate among the white population. The black cumulative AIDS rate is very close to the national average, but New Hampshire as a whole is well below the national average (Table 4). This may be indicative of people already infected with HIV moving to New Hampshire. But, whatever the root of the problem, it is clear that this is a population that the public health department needs to target in terms of prevention and treatment.