How Atlanta Is Combatting an Alarming Rate of HIV Infections

When Pope Francis visited the U.S. in September, CityLab made the case that he should add Atlanta to his tour, to address the escalating HIV/AIDS crisis there. He didn’t. But he did visit a hospital in Uganda this week, where he kissed babies infected with HIV. When asked by a journalist about whether the Catholic Church’s stance against condom use helps spread the virus, he said that HIV is a “small” concern compared to the problems of those who lack food, water, and shelter.

This is exactly why he needs to get to Georgia, where HIV and AIDS are heavily on people’s minds, especially those of African Americans, who made up two-thirds of all new diagnoses of the virus and disease in 2013. He might also want to come to Georgia to address the 33 percent of people living there who said in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey that they believe HIV can be passed along through kissing—meaning a lot of Georgians could believe the Pope has AIDS from kissing the Ugandan babies.