Bad news for Broward County: The section of South Florida continues to top a list of the Sunshine State counties when it comes to reporting news cases of HIV and AIDS.
Each month, the Florida Department of Health releases data on the new reported cases throughout the state. Most of these reports are organized in a county-by-county breakdown. Once again, as it has throughout the year, Broward County has the second-highest numbers, according to the data — second only to Miami-Dade.
According to these figures, between January and April 2015, Broward reported 403 cases of HIV infection. During the same period in 2014, the state tracked 328 cases in Broward. That adds up to a 23 percent jump in cases in 2015. In terms of actual AIDS cases, in the first months of 2015, Broward reported 113 fewer cases. That's a 17 percent decease from the numbers logged in 2014 — 136 cases.
The jump in HIV cases tracks with the figures pulled out of the county with the highest levels of AIDS and HIV, Miami-Dade. According to the same number sets, that county tallied 537 new HIV cases in the first four months of 2015, a 24 percent increase over the number marked in the same period last year, 434. And, like Broward, Miami-Dade has seen a slight drop in AIDS cases.
As of the end of April, the state guesses there are 18,317 people in Broward living with HIV/AIDS.