Mary Evans, a researcher for the CDC who specializes in HIV/AIDS, began work in West Virginia when the state health department asked for help. One in rural West Virginia showed that, despite the explosion of opioid use in the nation and the use of needles in drug abuse, HIV is more commonly spread among men through sexual contact.ĭr. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met last month to discuss new findings. Still, stigma and a lack of education keep Arkansans, especially those in rural areas, from getting screened for the human immunodeficiency virus, experts say.ĭisease detectives for the U.S. Since then, testing and treatment for AIDS and HIV have improved, and medical professionals don't think surgery can change sexuality. That was in the early 1980s, just as doctors were taking notice of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. 'I told them 'That doctor is a quack, and there's nothing medically wrong with me,'' he said. Mabin, a teenager at the time, stormed out of the clinic. The doctor told his parents their son needed surgery to remove whatever it was that made him attracted to men. When Cornelius Mabin first told his parents he was gay, they took him to the doctor.
