Tomorrow, February 7th, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

--taken from www.blackaidsday.org

The house is on fire and we need all hands on board to help put it out. According to the CDC, of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, HIV and AIDS have hit Black Americans the hardest. The reasons are not directly related to race or ethnicity, but rather to some of the barriers faced by many Black Americans. These barriers can include poverty (being poor), higher rate of other sexually transmitted diseases, drug use, and stigma (negative attitudes, beliefs, and actions directed at people living with HIV/AIDS or directed at people who do things that might put them at risk for HIV).

When we look at HIV/AIDS by race and ethnicity, we see that Black Americans have

• More illness. Even though blacks (including African Americans) account for about 13% of the United States population, we account for about half (49%) of the people who contract HIV and are diagnosed with AIDS.
• Shorter survival times. Blacks with AIDS often don’t live as long as people of other races and ethnic groups with AIDS. This is due to the barriers mentioned above.
• More deaths. For Black Americans, HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death.

Blacks— In 2006, according to the CDC, the rate of new infections among non-Hispanic blacks was 7 times the rate among whites (83.7 versus 11.5 new infections per 100,000 population). Blacks also accounted for the largest share of new infections (45%, or 24,900). Historical trend data show that the number of new infections among blacks peaked in the late 1980s and has exceeded the number of infections in whites since that time.

CDC is working to fight HIV among African Americans through the Heightened National Response, a partnership of CDC, public health partners, and African American community leaders to intensify prevention efforts nationwide. The partnership is designed to build upon progress in four key areas: expanding prevention services, increasing testing, developing new interventions, and mobilizing broader community action.

Podcast of Dr. Robert Fullilove, the Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs and Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, in an interview with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Dr. Fullilove talks about the progress being made in HIV prevention for African Americans and where programs are still falling short:
http://sfaf.typepad.com/