HIV cases up
sharply in Dallas suburbs

While numbers of new HIV cases climbed throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth region in 2005, the figures skyrocketed in the Dallas suburbs of Denton and Collin counties, The Dallas Morning News reports. New HIV cases climbed 60% in Collin County and 58% in Denton County.

Ron Aldridge, executive director of AIDS Services of North Texas, says part of the reason for rapidly rising rates in the suburbs is that much of the area's HIV prevention funding is targeted at urban areas, minority groups, and injection-drug users, leaving rural and suburban areas with few prevention programs.

In response to the rising HIV infection rates in suburban Dallas, the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse has begun offering free rapid HIV antibody tests at the Collin County Adult Clinic one evening each week. The county's public health department also has expanded HIV antibody testing availability from one day each week to five days a week. AIDS Services of North Texas also offers free HIV tests at its Denton and Plano clinics one day a week. (Advocate.com)