As Hurricane Ida’s fierce winds ripped panels off of rooftops across New Orleans in September 2021, health workers and HIV activists braced for the aftermath. With power cut and roads blocked by debris, prescription refills and patients would be lost and forgotten in the storm’s chaotic wake across the South.
And with record-breaking hurricanes like Helene and Milton leading to hundreds of deaths and missing people earlier this fall across the Southeast, there is increasing fear that people living with HIV are losing the supportive services they need to stay alive because of climate change.
Nationwide, half of people with HIV are living in places that are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather and climate disasters, according to a new analysis of federal disaster and health data from the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive policy think tank. Of the 48 counties that are most vulnerable to climate disasters and have high rates of HIV, 35 have an above-average share of Black residents…