ORLANDO, Fla. — HIV is spreading in Florida, but some believe the state is in denial as new cases spike and funding for testing is vanishing.
9 Investigates looked into the dispute over the number of new HIV cases in Florida.
On March 26, the Florida Department of Health issued a press release that the number of new HIV cases in Florida in 2014 had been lowered from 6,147 cases to 4,613 cases, which would mean the state would go from leading the nation in new cases to just near the top of the nation.
Document: DOH press release
The DOH said the drop in cases, removing almost one in every five, was due to the numbers being "shifted to the appropriate year of diagnosis or to the state where the individual resides" and "is consistent with adjustments made in previous years."
"We are almost off the charts, as far as new infections here in the Central Florida region," Terry DeCarlo, of The Center in Orlando, said. "It is very scary."
The Center offers HIV testing seven days a week, paid for through donations and grants.
DeCarlo said that state is cutting funding and staff at a time when HIV cases in Florida have surged. He said it isn't a new problem, just a new way to ignore a growing problem.
"People are still dying and that's the thing that people aren't seeing," DeCarlo said.
9 Investigates learned HIV infection rates have risen in Florida each year over the last four years as the number of new cases declined across the rest of the country. Orange County sits only behind Miami-Dade and Broward counties in the number of new cases.
Document: HIV infections by year of diagnosis in Florida
An email from Gov. Rick Scott's press office directed our questions back to the press release issued by the DOH on March 26.