HIV/AIDS: Racism, Gov’t Apathy Fuel US Epidemic
BOSTON - The United States has slashed the AIDS death rate among white and wealthy U.S. citizens, but the disease continues to ravage the black community at full force, leaders say.
African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population but are 50 percent of those diagnosed with HIV each year and 50 percent of those who die of AIDS annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
‘We are in a public health state of emergency in the African American community. We have the highest rate of death among all illnesses and on top of that, AIDS,’ Debra Fraser-Howze, head of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, told IPS.
‘HIV/AIDS looks the same in our community as it looks in some third world countries,’ Fraser-Howze said.
HIV is a virus that attacks the immune system and if untreated, leads to AIDS. An otherwise healthy person may get infected with HIV and live for 10 years before experiencing any symptoms. When the body begins to weaken from the infection, medicines called anti-retrovirals are given to help the body fight it.
About 32 million people worldwide have HIV/AIDS, according to recently revised figures from UNAIDS.
One million people in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS and a steady 40,000 people each year are newly diagnosed, according to the CDC.
‘For African Americans, HIV rates remain uncomfortably high. It’s really simply alarming this late in the epidemic,’ Carolyn Barley Britton, president-elect of the National Medical Association, an organisation of black physicians, told IPS.
Among whites and the well-to-do, people with HIV/AIDS are generally living 20 years and longer with the disease, because of access to anti-retroviral drugs, on the market since 1995, and good medical care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
As a result, the average U.S. death rate due to AIDS has dropped 80 percent since the mid-1990s, according to the CDC.
But hidden behind this progress are numbers that describe an epidemic in full swing in the African American community in the U.S., leaders say.
Sixty-seven percent of women diagnosed with HIV are black, according to the CDC.
Seventy percent of young people diagnosed with HIV are black. And AIDS is the leading cause of death among young, African American women. Among white women it is the seventh cause of death.
As a result, young black women have grown up with HIV in their communities.
‘It is in their face,’ said Jennifer Augustine, director of HIV and STD prevention at Advocates for Youth, an organisation focused on health issues.
At the same time, frank, comprehensive sex education that discusses the necessity of HIV testing and condom use is often absent in U.S. schools, because the federal government will not pay for it. It funds programs for teenagers about how to abstain from sex, she said.
‘If your only opportunity to get comprehensive sex education is in school, then we’ve kind of missed the mark,’ Augustine said.
Once on their own, young women in communities where education is poor, jobs are scarce and children have already been born have more to think about than to dwell on the risk of HIV, she said.
‘There are so many other issues that may take immediate concern,’ Augustine said.
The higher rates of HIV are rooted in racial bias, poverty and the stresses that go with it, Frazer-Howze said.
‘Race is what’s killing us. Race is at the heart of the lack of new therapies, at the heart of the lack of care regarding prevention policies, and at the heart of the poor public health infrastructure,’ Fraser-Howze said. ‘It’s at the heart of society’s response in general and the government’s response in particular.’
The activism that marked the early years of the epidemic in the 1980s is largely absent today, Fraser-Howze said.
‘Unfortunately, now that the disease has become black and brown, there is not the same societal response,’ Fraser-Howze said. ‘We have not had an outpouring of support.’
Forty-two percent of blacks are diagnosed with HIV very late, within a year of developing AIDS, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This makes treatment challenging and leads to early deaths, Britton said.
Health care in the United States is expensive and fewer doctors practice in poor communities.
The fact that the U.S. has not made progress in lowering the number of people infected each year with HIV is directly related to the lack of a broad, effective public campaign about HIV risk, said Britton, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
‘The true tragedy is we know what messages the public needs, ones that de-stigmatize testing, and that communicate that preventive measures are available and that treatment is available,’ Britton said.
The U.S. needs to make the same level of commitment to an HIV public health campaign as have other nations, some without the resources of the U.S.
‘What’s alarming is the inaction. It’s been this way for many years. Effective strategies to deal with these poor statistics are not in place,’ Britton said.
‘We know what works and all we need is to have to have the will to do it,’ Britton said.
The African American community is going after HIV on its own.
‘We will try to do what we can in our community. Many churches have their own programs,’ Britton said. ‘There have been ongoing attempts that have received little notice,’ she said.
Most recently, 25 black politicians, doctors, community leaders and clergy came together to form the Black AIDS Mobilization, an organization that will advocate for more funding, educational efforts and treatment aimed at African American communities. Its goal is to end the epidemic in five years.
‘Black clergy are leaders in their own right, pioneers and activists who champion our civil rights. We need them to take this on, absent societal support,’ Fraser-Howze said.
The widespread ban against condom distribution in prisons, which house massive numbers of black men and poor whites, feeds into the epidemic, Britton said.
Only the state of Vermont and prisons in five U.S. cities make condoms available to inmates, according to an AP/International Herald Tribune survey.
‘There are 11 million people in the U.S. who have been in prison at some point. That’s an enormous risk if you have people in that pool who are HIV infected,’ Britton said.
‘If you go out 10-20 years you’d have 20 million people who have graduated from prison,’ she said.
There is no public health program to test and treat them for HIV after they leave prison, she said.
A report released this month by the criminal justice research group JFA Associates. estimated that one in three African American men will spend time in prison during their lives.
© 2007 Inter Press Service
WOD = prison = AIDS
This isn’t 1965. Today the “black community” watches the same television, goes to the same schools, and has the same healthcare options as the “white community”. The black population is no longer the “minority” that it was.
The reason that AIDS is more prevalent amoung blacks now is because when the parents grew up it was the 1960’s. At that time “Jim Crow” was in effect and blacks were discriminated against every day. Blacks weren’t even allowed to attend the same schools. As a result, the parents didn’t receive the same education, grew up poorer, and were unable to pass on to their children the same information that whites received at that time. Fortunately, the awareness is increasing. It still has a long way to go before it will equalize. Until we eliminate the racist barriers and programs that separate all our races, people will continue to suffer.
Ethnic Cleansing?
“Leave no child behind - teach abstinence”.
I don’t buy into the race bias. American Blacks know just as well what they can catch out there.
the first “mistake” when it came around, was insisting that it was a homosexual disease. People kept screwing.
then they calmed people by telling them that the new drugs used to fight AIDS prolonged lives by up to 20-30 years longer than without. People kept screwing.
now, in the last year it is being promoted that circumcised males have a much less chance of contracting/spreading HIV…in other words, forget the condom, as long as your “cut” your ok. Even women talk about staying away from uncircumcised males as if it was all that is required to be safe. People keep on screwing.
many college kids today are apathetic about it too. One guy I questioned about his chronic cheating on his GF said ” I get tested every 6 months, I won’t give it to anyone if I get it”
The NEO Cons would rather see a mass die off so the messages have been weak.
abstinence does not work, condoms help, monogamy is not pushed any more,promiscuity is a problem. Its a badge of honer with the younger gens. to claim sexual partners in the hundreds. Of course with the way the World is and no Soc. Sec. retirement why would they care about sticking around?
Health care in the United States is expensive and fewer doctors practice in poor communities.
Can I hear it for the healers in the world!
Where did this disease start in the first place? There is a great deal of terrifying people in this world.
Yes, Blacks in America today may view the same tv programs, and read the same magazines or newspapers as the caucasians do and which all other races may in America, but because many blacks live in poor neighborhoods they do not have access to healthcare (but then again so many Americans dont); However, someone must have been misinformed if they classify all black americans as lower income. There are indeed many black youths in urban areas who attend schools with troubled urban education systems (that usually have less money, resources, etc.), gang violence, abuse, and so forth which have placed many kids in very difficult situations, where they have little control. But there are also many black youths who attend public and private schools in the suburbs, as some of their parents in fact attended schools in 50’s & 60’s that were not segregated in the North and recieved the same education as whites, but where racism was still encountered. Those factors should be acknowledged for people who may be unaware of that history. But the story behind the epidemic spreading among many blacks, who remain a minority im America consisting of 13% of the pop., is a mysterious, tragic, complicated, and controversial story. While racism continues and will always exist, it is definitely one contributing factor to the problem. Awareness may be steadily increasing, but it is not fast enough to save many lives lost. Action is being taken, yet so much more needs to take place to find answers so desperately needed.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has an A-Z list of items which this administration has misrepresented. Go to:
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/a-to-z-alphabetical.html
If you click on “Abstinance Only..”, you will find, not only information on the administration’s abstinence only ideas but the claim that condons are always effective in preventing the spread of AIDS. This is the wrong message to be sending to young people.
Sorry, the above message should say “condons are NOT always effective in preventing the spread of AIDS.”
“Unfortunately, now that the disease has become black and brown, there is not the same societal response.” Societal? Since when were gay people considered part of the greater society? It seems to me we were the ones raising hell about the issue. President Reagan didn’t even use the word “AIDS” until well into his second term.
I guess no one has heard of self-control. I didn’t know sex was worth taking a chance of dying for.
There is race bias in odds of incarceration, jobs, and education among other things. There is also class bias in all the same things. Example rich get rehab, poor get prison.
Confounding the class and race data makes the problems very hard to solve. Solutions for race always run into equal protection constitutional restrictions imposed by clever lawyers that are careful to stick to racial rather than class issues. Segregation by law or practice also helps. Only one race in bad schools - often black.
It is very hard to defend unequal schools where class is the issue. example- if kids of same race and intelligence are compared where school quality is the issue equal protection requires that the poor school is addressed.
This is why vouchers are important to the rich class. Their kids can all go to private schools that the poor with vouchers can’t afford.
lillulu - every woman who intentionally gets pregnant thinks sex is worth taking a chance for. Unprotected sex is not taking a chance these days - it is masochistic or sadistic at best and suicidal or homicidal at worst.
Little mention is made of the Roman Catholic Church and their campaigns throughout Africa and the world telling people that the use of condoms is anti-God and a sin punishable by hell. A Nigerian Bishop even led a public demonstration against the use of condoms even after the UN emphatically pleaded with Rome to reverse its policy on condom use. Given the aids epidemic the Roman Churches policy on condom use is essentially a crime against humanity which has led to millions of unnecessary deaths due to unprotected sex.
Indeed said the wise man “The sinners will continue to sin” – reincarnation after reincarnation after reincarnation!
Kindness. Peter Terry –
for issues downunder:
http://www.nambassa.com/
http://www.nambassa.blogspot.com/
Roman Catholics need to join the 21st Century and stop dictating to people how many babies they should have. Not everyone is rich and can afford a dozen or so children.
Good post Golddogs. That last line gave me a quite a laugh. Not sure that was your intention though…..
Why would anyone want to prolong their miserable lives in U.S. cities anyway? What a chithole thanks to the neocons. Can you even breath anymore with all the coal fired plants cranking up? Why would you worry about aids when the very food you eat is full of coal dust mercury fallout or frankenfood genesplicing experimental super plants that will do God-Only-Knows what to your chromosomes in ten years…. the entire population is nothing but a bunch of guinea pigs for corporate food company profits and super processed utltra-shelf life human experimentation.
I remember having the same, “we’re all going to die anyway” attitude as a young man when the economy was in recession, jobs were scarce, and our prospects were bleak. This lead to destructive behavior for many of my friends. We lived for the fearless moment. Adult society was viewed by my young group as a fate worse than death, so we lived life on the edge. It resulted in a lot of close calls. Many young men believe they’re immortal, and can’t picture themselves in domestic life, settled down with a family. We used to believe that life after 20 was not worth living.
The only problem with that theory was that it was wrong. Life can be worth living, for example, if you leave the United Police States of America, and find a nice, poor, third-world country to exist in. All you have to do is accept poverty. It’s not such a stereotyped thing in other countries. Life slows down, you give up commercial things like automobiles and consumer crap; you plant a little garden instead. I highly recommend the simple rural life in agriculture overseas as opposed to slugging it out in the inner city. Black youth should sign up on a merchant freighter and jump ship in the islands somewhere.
Why?
Because the scum running the US right now do nothing to improve it or the world at all. Everyone is being held hostage to the ravages of Globalization and predatory capitalism. Gone are the days of building great American societies based on wisdom and learning. Now we are prisoners of religious wackos who are trying to make the world a hell on earth to conform to their misplaced belief in a “second coming.”
Most of man’s ills are rooted in the twin evils of religious and racial fanaticism. In the US we should tax all the churches, because they long ago crossed the line into politics, collecting money for Bush’s faith-based initiatives and letting human crisis spin out of control. Nothing is more important than restoring checks and balances to government. Nothing is more important than re-establishing a separation of church and state.
uhh news flash people. there is a cure for aids. tetrasil. all of this other talk is irrelevant. look it up, and then look up the patent online. why do people not talk about this??? the real problem with aids? the cure is out there and NO ONE will fight for it to be used. treatment is a scam to make money.