President Obama’s top AIDS policy adviser will hold a rare local meeting today in Jackson, Miss., with activists, patients, and health-care providers about the need for increased federal money for HIV/AIDS care in the South, according to the Associated Press.

The meeting, said Jeffrey S. Crowley, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, is intended to spotlight the significant percentage of cases in the South and how the disease disproportionately hits members of minority groups.

The South leads the country in the percentage of deaths related to AIDS. Yet the region ranks last with regard to overall federal dollars spent per HIV-infected patient, at $6,565 a year, according to the Southern AIDS Coalition. In addition, say patients and activists, rural areas of the South often face a dearth of nonprofit and public services aimed at HIV and AIDS patients.