The HIV epidemic remains centered in the South, health officials say. And the region must overcome several factors before this disease burden will ease, they add.

More than half of the new HIV diagnoses in 2016 – about 20,000 — were in the South, a CDC official told an Atlanta conference last week.

Of those Southern cases,  two-thirds were from male-to-male sexual contact, Dr. Eugene McCray, director of the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said at a Center For AIDS Research symposium at Emory University. One in five new diagnoses were among women.

It’s not just urban areas that are affected, McCray said. Of the new ...

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Statistics on Georgia women’s health are especially alarming.

Women in this state have comparatively high rates of maternal mortality, unintended pregnancies and being without health insurance.

This is particularly true in rural Georgia, writes Emory medical student Stephen Gurley in a new GHN Commentary.

By expanding Medicaid, Georgia can begin to solve this crisis, Gurley argues.

Here’s a link to his Commentary.

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Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has received state approval for its planned 446-bed hospital in Brookhaven.

The approval of the certificate-of-need application was announced late last week. The project was not opposed by any other hospital system.

The project features additional beds and expanded services that allows Children’s to relocate from Egleston Children’s Hospital, on Clifton Road in Atlanta, to the North Druid Hills property in Brookhaven.

“We are pleased that the Department [of Community Health] recognized the long-term value of this new hospital for Georgia’s current and future generations of children,” Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta CEO Donna Hyland said in a statement Friday. ...

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The new Leapfrog Group report card on hospital safety found that 26 Georgia hospitals scored an “A” grade, up from 15 in the spring ratings.

The Leapfrog Group’s report for the fall, released Thursday, said 35 percent of graded Georgia hospitals got a top mark for patient safety. That percentage put Georgia No. 17 among states in the widely viewed ratings. Just 21 percent of Georgia hospitals earned A’s in the Spring ratings.

Leapfrog, a patient safety organization founded by employers, issues the rankings semi-annually.

Georgia’s “A” hospitals were a mix of urban and suburban hospitals and smaller rural facilities.

Gordon Hospital in Calhoun ...

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