Long Beach saw 100 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2023, a slight tick up from the 94 counted in 2022, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services’ new dashboard.
Through the dashboard, residents can now find local HIV data with counts and demographics of people who have been diagnosed.
The dashboard is meant to help health officials determine how to address HIV and reduce the number of people infected every year. The city is also looking to gather feedback from the community to add more information.
“This resource equips our community with timely insights, enabling proactive strategies to combat HIV transmission,” City Health Officer Anissa Davis said in a statement. “Investing in data-driven approaches strengthens our ability to support those affected.”
The public data includes numbers of people newly diagnosed per year since 2019, HIV rates by ZIP code, the current number of city residents living with HIV, reported exposures, death rates and more, all with demographic information.
The dashboard has several interactive sections with filters to sort by ethnicity, sex at birth and age and will be updated quarterly in an effort to provide people with timely information, the city said in a news release on Thursday.
According to the data, the city has catalogued 4,038 people in Long Beach living with HIV as of Dec. 31, 2023.
Long Beach’s rate of people living with HIV is 865.5 per 100,000 residents, significantly higher than the 2021 statewide rate of 352.9 per 100,000, according to the California HIV Surveillance Report that year. However, the city saw a slight decline in people who have the virus from 2022 to 2023.
To try to keep those numbers down, Long Beach currently has free HIV self-test kits, mobile testing units, a condom distribution program and an HIV/STI hotline here or at 562-570-4321.
The new dashboard was created with feedback from the Long Beach HIV Planning Group, and data is collected by the city’s HIV/STI Surveillance Program and the California Department of Public Health’s Office of AIDS Program.
For more information on the city’s efforts to reduce HIV, click here. A list of HIV and STI testing facilities can be found here.