(BATON ROUGE, La.) - The Baton Rouge metro area ranks No. 1 in the nation in its rate of AIDS cases after ranking second the past two years.
That's according to 2010 data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Baton Rouge has a rate of 33.7, which means 33 out of every 100,000 people have AIDS.
Miami is second, Jackson, Miss., is third with a rate of 29.2; and Baltimore is fourth.
According to the CDC data, the New Orleans metro area is fifth with a rate of 26.2.
The Rev. A.J. Johnson, executive director and founder of the Baton Rouge AIDS Society, tells The Advocate the ranking does not surprise to him considering Baton Rouge has ranked high for years.
Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
