State Health Department Identifies 'HIV Clusters' In DFW
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Some in the Texas LGBT community are blaming social media and the influx of so-called 'hook up apps' for the number of growing HIV infection clusters identified in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, Houston, and San Antonio.
Brett Camp, the Texas regional director for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said technology can also be used to track HIV and AIDS cases. "They now have the ability to link how people were infected and if we've got somebody who is a 'super-infector'."
The volunteer LGBT group Impulse, which their website says is a "group dedicated to promoting healthier sexual lifestyles among gay men," is urging everybody who uses the apps, both gay and straight, to be on alert.
Camp says times have changed and that lately there has been a lot of complacency in the LGBT community about HIV and AIDS. "Prevention efforts have not had the emphasis that they did for a very long time," he said.
Last month, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) issued a health warning about the clusters and ongoing HIV transmission in the state. Health officials say the HIV clusters are "genetically similar" and range in size from 5 to 34 cases.
