Updated 2:23 pm
Monday, April 21, 2014
SFgate.com
In this April 16, 2014 photo, Tony Wyatt, 56, of Murphysboro, Ill., a client representative with Southern Illinois HIV Care Connect, is seen in Murphysboro.
MURPHYSBORO, Ill. (AP) — HIV cases in southern Illinois reached the highest number in nearly a decade last year, with more than half the infections from the virus that causes AIDS reported in people 24 years old or younger, public health officials said.
Complacency in public education about the virus was cited as the main reason for the increase, according to officials.
The Southern Illinois HIV Care Connect office in Jackson County’s health department, which tracks the data in 19 counties, said the region stretching from Mount Vernon to Cairo has averaged 14 to 15 new HIV cases a year. But that number jumped to 21 in 2012 and to 23 last year.
Given the prevalence of the disease among teenagers and young adults, Dr. Erica Kaufman— Southern Illinois Healthcare’s infectious diseases specialist — said she believes “we are in a time when a lot of young people don’t know about HIV.”