HIV continues to climb in the Black community here in Georgia

HIV rate continues to climb in black community

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

By Dahleen Glanton

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

ATLANTA – More than 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV continues to soar in the black community, accounting for more than half of the newly diagnosed infections in the U.S. in a recent yearly assessment by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the same time, health officials say, the black community has been slow to acknowledge the problem, prompting the CDC and grass-roots organizations to mark a yearly observance to bring attention to the epidemic.

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a national effort designed to mobilize blacks to get tested, educated and treated for the disease. Well-known blacks – including Tony Dungy, head coach of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts; entertainer Patti LaBelle; Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.; and former Secretary of State Colin Powell – have joined the campaign by taping public-service announcements to run on radio and television.

Of the roughly 1 million people estimated to be living with HIV in the United States, 47 percent are black, according to CDC statistics for 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available. Though blacks represent only about 13 percent of the U.S. population, 56 percent of the newly diagnosed cases in 2005 were blacks.

“The ability to manage this terrible disease has improved and more people are living healthier and longer lives, but African-Americans have been diagnosed late and are not availing themselves to treatment,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. “The stigma within the community has prevented people from getting tested and accessing services needed to help manage infections.”

Black women are disproportionately affected, and black men who have sex with men have a much higher rate of infection than men of other backgrounds who have sex with men, Fenton said.

“HIV is closely associated with socioeconomic disparity in our country. Poverty, poor access to services and lack of knowledge all factor into this,” said Fenton. “Stigma, homophobia and lack of open conversation in the black community have further compounded the problem.”

Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is an important part of a comprehensive awareness program to stop the spread of AIDS, according to supporters, and it helps to get the message out.

“Black people are going to have to take responsibility for themselves in this epidemic,” said Debra Fraser-Howze, president of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. “We have to make some serious decisions, a decision to first talk about the epidemic and a decision to own it. It is ours, with 56 percent of all new infections.”

While there has been progress in confronting the disease in the black community, Fraser-Howze said, much work remains in getting the subject to the forefront in churches, schools and community groups. And while much attention has been given to the epidemic in Africa, not enough has been placed on the problem in black communities in the United States, she said.

“We are in a quandary because we as African-Americans have to be concerned about what is going on in Africa. But at the same time we are concerned about Africa, we have to be concerned about South Central Los Angeles. Both have to be addressed,” said Fraser-Howze. “Funds are dwindling and everybody is taking money to Africa when African-Americans are dying in this country.”

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HIV/AIDS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA
The Georgia Department of Human Resources estimates there are about 1,200 people in Macon and surrounding counties who have been diagnosed with AIDS. Of those, 962 (78 percent) are black. As for midstate HIV infection (reliable Georgia statistics date back only to 2004), the department reports that of the 407 incidences of HIV on record, 337 (83 percent) are black.

State epidemiologists note that they ‘know of’ about 7,500 HIV cases in Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, has estimated that – because many people go untested or are unaware of infection – there may be as many as 21,000 people, and possibly more, in Georgia who are HIV positive.
- Staff reports

IF YOU GO
In recognition of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, there will be a town-hall meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. today at Steward Chapel AME Church, 887 Forsyth St. in Macon.