HIV / AIDS prevention agencies are funded through the department's HIV Prevention grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Closing the Gap (CTG) initiative through the Office of Minority Health" (AIDS surveillance data, 2012, para. 13). In addition, another program that has been used in Florida for several years for senior citizens at risk for AIDS or who are suffering from AIDS is the Senior HIV Intervention Project (SHIP) (Agate, Mullins, Prudent, & Liberti, 2003). According to Agate and his associates, "SHIP encourages doctors to obtain a full sexual risk assessment from all patients, regardless of age. To prevent older adults from being turned off by seminars about HIV prevention, SHIP suggests integrating the risk reduction information into general discussion of health issues or presenting seminars as sex education" (p. 238). Despite its ongoing application across the state, the SHIP protocol has not been evaluated for effectiveness despite receiving funds from the Florida state government (Agate et al., 2003).

Conclusion

The research showed that acquired immune deficiency syndrome remains a public health threat in many parts of the country, and the state of Florida is among the nation's leading states in the rate of AIDS. In fact, AIDS is among the leading causes of death for certain subpopulations in the state that are at high risk for the disease,...

Given the state's reputation as a retirement destination of choice for the elderly, it is perhaps not surprising that Florida also has a disproportionately higher rate of AIDS among its elderly population as well. Finally, the research showed that despite ongoing statewide efforts to address the problem, the rates of newly acquired cases of AIDS confirm that more needs to be done to reverse these troubling trends in the future.
References

AIDS surveillance data. (2012). Florida State Department of Health. Retrieved from http://www.

doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/aids/index.html.

Agate, L.L., Mullins, J.M., Prudent, E.S., & Liberti, T.M. (2003). Strategies for reaching retirement communities and aging social networks: HIV / AIDS prevention activities

among seniors in South Florida. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 33,

238-242.

Dyer, J.G.. (2003, Summer). The black cloud over the Sunshine State. Journal of Cultural

Diversity, 10(2), 37-39.

Goicoechea-Balbona, a. (1998, February). Children with HIV / AIDS and their families. Health and Social Work, 23(1), 98-102.

Jacobson, S.A. (2011, May). AIDS interventions in an…