Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day, and across the country, African American leaders are calling on citizens to approach the epidemic of this disease in the community with renewed vigor. The Center for Disease Control is supporting the event which is being sponsored by a coalition of different agencies, and in many locations, free AIDS tests will be administered.
The statistics are chilling. While 13 percent of the population of the US is African American, over 50 percent of all new HIV infections nationwide occur in this segment of the population. AIDS is the biggest killer of African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, and it is estimated that up to 30 percent of all young, black gay males have the virus.
Between 2000 and 2003, black men were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at seven times the rate of white men. In the same time period, 69 percent of all women who were diagnosed were black. In 2003, black women were 18 times more likely to be diagnosed than white women.
The CDC hopes to cut down the number of new HIV infections among blacks by introducing a variety of programs aimed to this population group. Experts agree that education is the key, but also understand the problem of denial among all population groups.
