HIV case growth rate reaches 20% in Arizona, figures show

PHOENIX - The growth of new HIV cases in Arizona reached 20% in 2022, marking the highest growth rate since the height of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in the late 1980s. 

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the rise in cases is predominately in young adults, namely those 25 to 29 and 30 to 34. As for what’s causing this increase, officials are citing several factors.

Ricardo Fernandez, the Chief of HIV and Hepatitis C at AZDHS, said there were less testing done during the COVID-19 Pandemic, followed by an increase in testing afterwards.

"Finally, we do think that there are new cases than there have been in previous years, in addition to those that were factors as well," said Fernandez.

Fernandez said to combat this, AZDHS is working with several partners, including programs to connect people with PrEP medication. If taken as directed, PrEP, which is the abbreviation for pre-exposure prophylaxis, can prevent HIV in 99% of cases.

Health officials also record connecting nearly 80% of people to HIV services within 30 days of diagnosis.

"HIV is now a livable condition," said Fernandez. "Folks are able to live healthy and full lives with HIV if they are linked to HIV medical care, and take their HIV medications reguarly."

Person living with HIV talks about experience

As Fernandez mentioned above, HIV is now a livable condition, and that statement is backed by other health officials.

However, there was a time when that was not the case.

"It was a death sentence back then," said Joseph A. Gaxiola, who has been living with HIV for years.

In an article on events in the 1990s published by the Associated Press in 2022, AIDS was considered to be a death sentence at the time. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

"People who got AIDS died, it was thought, just as Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury did the month Johnson retired. The consternation around the HIV virus then was similar to the mixed feelings the country and world has about COVID-19," read a portion of the article.

"I got diagnosed in 1999, and I went to a doctor who gave me a life choice: he told me he could make the next six months of my life comfortable, or he could put me on a regiment of medications and I could live for five years," said Gaxiola. "I was supposed to die at 34."

However, through medication and his doctors’ guidance, Gaxiola is now 52 years old.

"I would put a $20 bill on the table and I told them, ‘if you follow your doctor’s directions, if you take your medications every day, in six months you will be undetectable,’" said Gaxiola. "Undetectable, in layman's terms, is basically remission, and everyone but one person never picked up that $20 bill."