The drug-related AIDS epidemic in Louisiana

Health emergency

Through the end of 1998, 3,200 Louisiana residents age 13 and over had injection-related AIDS or had died from it. (1)

Louisiana has the sixth highest injection-related AIDS rate in the nation. (2)

About half of all AIDS cases in Louisiana are injection-related. (3)

Metro areas ranking among highest in the U.S.

The Baton Rouge metro area ranks sixth in injection-related AIDS among U.S. metro areas of over 500,000. (The Baton Rouge metro is tied for sixth with the Hartford, Connecticut, metro area.)

The New Orleans metro area ranks fifteenth. (4)

The crisis among African Americans

Through the end of 1998, some 2,100 African Americans living in Louisiana had injection-related AIDS or had died from it.

The rate of injection-related AIDS cases among blacks in Louisiana is 7 times higher than the rate for whites.  (5)

Thousands of all races at risk

In 1996, in the New Orleans metropolitan area alone, there were an estimated 40,000 who were at risk for HIV either because they injected drugs or because they were the heterosexual partners of persons who injected drugs. (6)

Access to sterile needles in Louisiana

Louisiana has no needle exchange programs and officials there before it would be illegal.  However a voucher program through which pharmacists would sell syringes is legal and as of November 1999 at least one AIDS organization in Baton Rouge is trying to institute such a program. (7)

Information on the USA and other states

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Footnotes  

(1)

AIDS data are from a special tabulation from the Centers for Disease Control.  Injection-related AIDS cases include persons in the following risk groups: persons who inject drugs; men who have sex with men and inject drugs; and the heterosexual partners of persons who inject drugs.  AIDS cases are rounded to the nearest hundred.  
(2)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million for states were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the 1997 population age 13 and over.  The 3-year average was used to smooth out any unusual variations from year to year and to get a more realistic final figure. When ties occurred in state rates, the states involved were given the same rank.

U.S. population data are from the U.S. Bureau of Census.  The population of Puerto Rico age 13 and over was estimated using total population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the projected age distributions from Eduard Bos, My T. Vu, Ernest Massiah, and Rodolfo A. Bulatao, World population projections 1994-1995.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1994, page 410.  
(3)

The percentage of AIDS cases that are injection-related was calculated by dividing the number of injection-related AIDS cases (the 3-year average from the years 1996-1998) by the number of AIDS cases for which the exposure group is known (also a 3-year average from the years 1996-1998).  Each percent is rounded to the nearest 5.  Thus, for example, 42 percent was rounded to 40.

(4)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million for metro areas were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the total 1997 population (including those age 12 and under). Population data are from the U.S. Bureau of Census.  When ties occurred in rates, the metro areas involved were given the same rank.  
(5)

Injection-related AIDS rates per million by race/ethnic group for each state were calculated using injection-related AIDS cases among persons age 13 and over for each racial/ethnic group (the 3-year average for the years 1996-1998) divided by the 1997 population  age 13 and over for that racial/ethnic group.  In instances when the ratio of AIDS rates for African Americans to whites or Latinos to whites was greater than 20, the ratio is reported as "greater than 20" rather than given as the exact ratio. Rates are not reported when the total number of AIDS cases for 1996-1998 was less than 100.   
(6)

Scott D. Holmberg, "The Estimated Prevalence and Incidence of HIV in 96 Large US Metropolitan Areas," American Journal of Public Health, May 1996, vol. 86, no. 5. Supplementary Material.  Available from the CDC.  
(7) Angelette, Adrian. "Doctor links AIDS to addicts; official urges selling users clean needles." The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), November 29, 1999.

For other materials used on this website, see References.