Kansas City News Blog

No wonder Men's Health gave Kansas City a D- for STDs. Jackson County has a higher rate of AIDS and HIV than most of the country. Jackson County's rate of AIDS is bigger than 81.6 percent of the counties in the nation. JaCo also has a higher rate of HIV than 92.5 percent of the country. That's what Danny O'Farrell of the National HIV/AIDS Atlas told KSHB Channel 41.  The National HIV/AIDS Atlas charts AIDS and HIV rates by age, gender and race/ethnicity in every county in the country.

JaCo isn't alone. Wyandotte and Leavenwoth counties were just as bad with matching 81.6 percent AIDS rates.

Pitch reporter Peter Rugg reported about the terrifying rise in Kansas City's HIV infection rate in the May 2008 feature story "Change is Gonna Come."

Here's a snip:

People who are keeping track of Kansas City's HIV infection rate are alarmed at how much it has risen over the past five years. It's been growing so quickly that it rivals the most heavily infected regions in the world.

In fact, the rate of new infections per capita in Jackson County over a four-year period rivaled that of sub-Saharan Africa, says Paul Showalter, the Good Samaritan Project's director of development.

"The HIV infection data I saw showed cases climbing so much from 2002 to 2006," Showalter says. The Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department reported a total of 798 new cases in Jackson County during those years, with an average annual increase of 14.25 percent. If that rate continues, the number of HIV cases in the county will double every five years.

More than two-thirds of those newly infected with HIV are minorities.

Better wrap your package, boys.