Low AIDS awareness adds to crisis - Many blacks don't get latest treatments

Low AIDS awareness adds to crisis - Many blacks don't get latest treatments
By Dahleen Glanton
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Published February 7, 2007

ATLANTA -- More than 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV continues to soar in the black community, accounting for nearly half 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 African-American 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.

Wednesday 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 African-Americans--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 African-American, according to CDC statistics for 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available. Though blacks represent only about 12 percent of the U.S. population, 49 percent of the newly diagnosed cases in 2005 were African-Americans. About 31 percent of new infections were among whites; the number was 18 percent for Hispanics.

"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."

African-American women are disproportionately affected, with an infection rate 20 times that of white females. Among men who have sex with men, blacks are infected at 7 times the rate of whites.

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

To increase early detection of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the CDC recently issued a new policy recommending that HIV testing become a routine part of medical care for Americans 13 to 64 years of age. It should be given much like a cholesterol or blood-pressure test, the CDC said, adding that patients should be allowed to refuse the HIV test if they choose.

Illinois Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) recently introduced a bill in the Illinois legislature that would include HIV testing in routine physical examinations that Illinois students take before entering school. HIV tests would be administered during school physical exams, just as tuberculosis tests and vaccinations are given.

Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is an important part of a comprehensive awareness program to stop the spread of the disease, 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."

While there has been progress in confronting the disease in the black community, she 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 U.S., 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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dglanton@tribune.com