This article is part of the Proud U series, a component of U=U & U, Pride Media’s year-long initiative to get the word out about HIV prevention, treatment, and testing, especially the groundbreaking news that people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads can no longer transmit HIV.
Bordering Lake Pontchartrain and built on a crescent curve along the Mississippi River, the city of New Orleans is located near the bayous of southern Louisiana’s Delta region. Its history and geography has always shaped the culture.
Though precariously placed and vulnerable to flooding (most dramatically demonstrated by the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina), the port city is also a gumbo of mixed perspectives and plentiful fun. Even as sea levels rise and the city faces other risks – including high HIV rates – the spirit and determination of the people who populate this Southern city are unmatched.
According to the New Orleans alternative paper The Gambit, New Orleans (as well as nearby Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana as a whole) has some of the country’s highest number of HIV cases relative to its population. The statewide Louisiana HIV/AIDS Strategy reports that between 2013 and 2017, diagnoses in the New Orleans metropolitan area specifically decreased from 523 to 354, according to the New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council.