Texas Report Finds Number Of People Living With HIV/AIDS Increasing In Nacogdoches County

A report recently released by the Texas Department of State Health Services found that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nacogdoches County is on the rise, the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel reports. "According to the state HIV/AIDS report, Nacogdoches reported seven new cases of HIV and seven new cases of AIDS in 2008, which brought the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS to 88." Wilbert Brown, executive director of Health Horizons, an area clinic, said if there are two more cases diagnosed by the end of this year, the total number of cases will reach a record high for Nacogdoches County. "Brown said the recent rise in people with HIV/AIDS may be that the virus/disease has gradually vanished from the American conscious – after the pandemic received great attention from the mass media in the '80s and '90s," the article states. Brown added, "If you don't see a lot of information, you assume that the issue has gone away. These numbers reflect that it has not gone away. ... HIV is not dead." The article also includes data from other Texas counties (Velasquez, 8/7).