Refugees Welcome: HIV Cases Surge In South Central Idaho

 The local ABC affiliate reports that a "Sharp increase in HIV and AIDS cases prompts health officials to urge vigilance in South Central Idaho." The article relates:

South Central Public Health announced last week that the area recorded 15 cases of HIV in 2025, up from five cases in 2024. AIDS cases also jumped significantly, with 9 reported this year compared to just one last year. 

However, the article is quite opaque about possible reasons for the increase, although one does come to mind:  

Twin Falls sits in Idaho’s southern Magic valley, a city of more than 50,000 that is about 75% white. Conservative and deeply Christian, the town has consistently voted Republican, backing Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2024. Yet since the 1980s, it has been one of only two cities in Idaho, along with Boise, to accept resettled refugees: first south-east Asians, then eastern Europeans from the former Soviet bloc, Bosnians in the 1990s, and later families from Africa and the Middle East. ...   

Although I can't find specific information on the number and types of refugees, Idaho, overall, accepted 468 refugees in FY 2025, with 36% coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the refugee agency for Twin Falls states that "[r]efugees resettled in Twin Falls come primarily from Afghanistan, Burma, the Democratic Republic of [the] Congo, Iraq, and Syria."