A vial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine rests on a table at an inoculation station in Jackson, Miss., on July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
The clinic is in many ways an oasis. The new diagnosis rate for Latinos in Orange County, Florida, which includes Orlando, rose by about a third from 2012 through 2022, while dropping by a third for others. Florida has the third-largest Latino population in the U.S., and had the seventh-highest rate of new overall HIV diagnoses among Latinos in the nation in 2022.Hermida, whose asylum case is pending, never imagined getting medication would be so difficult, he said during the 500-mile drive from North Carolina to Florida. After hotel rooms, jobs lost and family goodbyes, he is hopeful his search for consistent HIV treatment — which has come to define his life the past two years — can finally come to an end.
“Soy un nómada a la fuerza, pero bueno, como me comenta mi prometido y mis familiares, yo tengo que estar donde me den buenos servicios médicos,” he said. I’m forced to be a nomad, but like my family and my fiancé say, I have to be where I can get good medical services.That’s the priority, he said. “Esa es la prioridad ahora.”Methodology: KFF Health News and The Associated Press analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the number of new HIV diagnoses and infections among Americans ages 13 and older at the local, state and national level. This story primarily uses incidence rate data — estimates of new infections — at the national level and diagnosis rate data at the state and county level.
Bose reported from Orlando, Florida. Reese reported from Sacramento, California. AP videojournalist Laura Bargfeld contributed to this report.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is responsible for all content. This article also was produced by
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— the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. KFF Health News is the publisher ofCC Garrett, who goes by “Miss Hickory” when she’s leading educational tours for kids on the farm, said she loves watching young people connect with their food in new ways — eating and maybe even enjoying salad for the first time or learning why you can’t grow tomatoes year-round.
“It’s amazing for me just because this community, it just really speaks to me, being built around an urban farm, which I think is such an important American concept,” she said.A tractor clears farmland in Agritopia, a community nestled around a plot of agricultural land, on Sunday, April 22, 2025, in Gilbert, Ariz. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
A tractor clears farmland in Agritopia, a community nestled around a plot of agricultural land, on Sunday, April 22, 2025, in Gilbert, Ariz. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)For some who live here, this place is more than a typical neighborhood. In Agritopia’s “kid pod,” a cluster of families with 23 kids between them, parents let the young ones roam freely, knowing at least one guardian will always be looking out for them. The rest of the parents make dinner or plan a date night. Just across the street, a peach and citrus orchard sways in the breeze, occasionally wafting the smells of fruit into front yards.