Dramatically reducing HIV infections in the next decade will prove very difficult—and may be impossible with cuts to Medicaid or the repeal of the ACA.

It can be hard sometimes to visualize an epidemic—especially one as historically big and devastating as HIV. That’s why some researchers have turned to maps, which can illuminate links between policy and public-health outcomes in surprising ways.

Patrick Sullivan is a professor of epidemiology at Emory University who previously worked in HIV/AIDS surveillance for more than a decade at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He can speak at length about the factors that have made the HIV epidemic difficult to address in the U.S.—including the challenges many people face accessing high-quality care in remote areas, the stigma many HIV-positive people still face, and the roles of income, poverty, and race in preventing and treating HIV.

But then he says, “I’m going to show you a map.” Read more at Pacific Standard.