Recent data say the percentages continue to grow worse.
In some ways, the face of AIDS is changing. Even as the number of new AIDS cases nationwide has leveled off, particularly among white gay men, infections are continuing unabated among heterosexuals, minorities, women, and gay men of color. However, in other ways the epidemic remains the same, as newly infected people in small towns and rural areas face the same biases and fears that confronted people in the cities in the 1980s. Even in terms of prevention, AIDS can be a difficult subject to address, especially where the discussion of sex is frequently taboo. Just because someone lives outside Austin in one of the nearby smaller communities or the beautiful Hill Country doesn't mean that AIDS isn't a problem around them.