100 People Die of AIDS-Related Illness Each Year at This U.S. Clinic

[Jim Allen]

Its a terrible wherever it happens, the fact this it continues to happen in one of the top powerful & wealthiest nations in the world is an additional disgrace.

Poz.com - full write-up 
https://www.poz.com/article/100-people-die-aidsrelated-illness-year-us-clinic

In Short:

Over 100 People Die of AIDS-Related Illness Each Year at This U.S. Clinic
“The number of people that we watch die alone is one of the greatest tragedies of our time.”

“The numbers alone are certainly astonishing,” Jonathan Colasanti, MD, MSPH, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infection Diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, told the newspaper. “The tragedy is not only do they tend to die very painful, drawn-out physical deaths, but the tougher thing for me to watch, is the emotional aspect. The number of people that we watch die alone, with no one in the room with them, surrounded by no family, is one of the greatest tragedies of our time.”

[leatherman]

“One cannot ignore in the South the legacy of racism and the remaining structural racism that affects our institutions,” Wendy Armstrong, a professor of medicine at Emory, tells the paper. “That might be how far patients have to travel to get to a clinic, how welcome they feel in that clinic. It’s that milieu that disadvantages our minority populations in accessing treatment.”

how far they travel? Unlike other rural states or the rest of Georgia, ATL is a huge urban area, so I'm guessing travel really isn't the problem. There are multiple clinics, bus lines, and Ryan White transportation funds.

The number of people that we watch die alone, with no one in the room with them, surrounded by no family, is one of the greatest tragedies of our time.”

ah! unaccompanied young black gay men? That is not about how they feel unwelcome at a clinic and decide to not get treatment, this is about how religious prejudice is destroying their self-esteem and causing them to be unloved and ostracized by their own families. 

High HIV rates and high AIDS death rates are common across the Southern states. While access to health care is definitely an issue, other issues like poverty, religion, transportation, and education are more important factors in HIV infection rates.