HIV Prevalence Rates Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Southern United States: Population-Based Estimates by Race/Ethnicity, Spencer Lieb et al., AIDS and Behavior (2010)

This study estimated HIV prevalence rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) across the Southern United States by race and ethnicity. These estimated rates can help guide resource allocation and assist advocacy, outreach, care, and treatment.

The study found that, in 2007, out of a total of 2.36 million black, white and Hispanic MSM living in the seventeen southern states, 172,166 were living with HIV (LWH). Contrary to data found in other regions of the country, black MSM LWH rates were higher than either white or Hispanic rates across the South. Among black MSM, the LWH rate was as high as one out of two in Washington D.C. and had an average HIV rate of one out of five in the southern states studied.  Among Hispanic MSM LWH, the rates were as high as one out of six in Washington D.C. with a southern average of one out of sixteen MSM. White MSM LWH rates ranged from one in seven in D.C. and averaged one in twenty-two in the South.