HIV/AIDS Cases Worldwide Are Down, But Not in Black America
By Yoji Cole
November 30, 2007
While the world is reportedly experiencing a decline in the number of HIV/AIDS cases, the United States can't say the same.
In the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is most severe in the black community. Black women account for 49 percent of all new cases, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making it critical that attention is paid to the black-American community's struggle with HIV/AIDS on World AIDS Day, which is tomorrow.
(See also: Tavis Smiley Gets Presidential Candidates to Focus on Black America)
New data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that the percentage of people worldwide living with HIV, the disease that causes AIDS, has leveled off and that the number of new infections has fallen. The WHO reports that in 2007, 33.2 million people were estimated to be living with the HIV virus, a decrease from 2006 when it was estimated that 39.5 million people were living with HIV.
WHO attributes the decrease in HIV/AIDS cases to "expanded and improved" HIV surveillance systems in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, most notably in India. Revised estimates for India, along with revisions of estimates in five sub-Saharan African countries, account for 70 percent of the reduction in HIV prevalence worldwide as compared with 2006 estimates, reports WHO.
In the United States, an estimated 1 million people are HIV positive, and of those, 250,000 (25 percent) are unaware that they're infected, according to the CDC.
"In the U.S. we see that AIDS is a black disease no matter how you look at it," says Phill Wilson, executive director of the Los Angeles--based Black AIDS Institute.
Of people infected in the United States, nearly half are black, even though the black population accounts for only 13 percent of the U.S. population. In 2005, 41 percent of men infected with HIV/AIDS were black, while 64 percent of women infected were black, reports the CDC.
"The rate of HIV diagnosis for black males is nearly seven times that of white males and more than twice the rate of Hispanic males. The HIV-diagnosis rate for black females is more than 20 times that of white females and almost four times that for Hispanic females," says Jennifer Ruth, spokesperson for the CDC.
Additionally, Ruth says a recent study of data from five cities showed that 46 percent of black men who have sex with men were HIV-infected, more than twice the proportion of white men (21 percent). In addition, fewer black men who are infected know they're HIV-positive, compared with men of other ethnicities. "Among the HIV-infected men, more than two-thirds of black men were unaware, compared to 48 percent for Hispanic men and 18 percent for white men," says Ruth.
Sexually transmitted diseases in general impact the black community at higher rates than they do other communities. Poverty, in which about 25 percent of black Americans live, decreases a person's access to healthcare and is another reason HIV cases are high in the black community, reports the CDC.
The CDC also reports that black people who acquire HIV are doing so mostly through unprotected sex with a partner who is HIV-positive. After unprotected sex, sharing intravenous-drug paraphernalia with someone who has HIV is the second most common reason.
Wilson says the black community long ignored HIV/AIDS because it was thought of as a gay-white-man's disease.
"We were in denial and to exacerbate that, we let stigma get the upper hand," says Wilson. "We approached [HIV/AIDS] from a moral perspective, and that created a barrier in designing effective strategies."
(See also: AIDS in Black America: 'Complacency Is Killing People')
Effective strategies are now being created with the help of black ministers, civil-rights leaders and community organizations that include awareness and testing, adds Wilson.
And, the CDC reports that while there is a rise in HIV prevalence, "there have been no indications of increases in the overall rate of new HIV infections among African Americans," says Ruth. "In fact, there have been signs of possible reductions in new infections among blacks in some areas hard-hit by HIV, such as the state of Florida and in populations hard-hit throughout the country, including injection-drug users and African-American women."
Moreover, Ruth reports that mother-to-child transmission of HIV is down, which largely affects black women. Also, black teens are seeing a decrease in risky sexual behavior and an increase in condom use.
"There is a movement afoot to really mobilize black communities around HIV/AIDS," says Wilson. "It began last year when 25 black leaders came together to make a declaration of commitment at the World AIDS Conference in Toronto. In the past year, major black institutions have begun creating strategic plans that respond to the epidemic. And black leaders, from civil-rights leaders to entertainers, are calling for a national AIDS plan in America. So what I see happening is that the sleeping giant is waking up."
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