The South dominates new HIV diagnoses in the United States

In Donald Trump's State of the Union address in February, the president pledged to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030, saying: "Together, we will defeat AIDS in America and beyond". As well as assuring those at risk receive effective drugs, key to the plan is to target areas where new infections are occurring the most. As our chart shows, these places are predominantly located in the South where 52 percent of all new diagnoses were made in 2017. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the states with the highest rates are Georgia, Florida and Louisiana with 24.9, 22.9 and 22.1 per 100,000 people, respectively.