Government Agency Urges Black HIV/AIDS Awareness

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, joins African-Americans in remembering those who have died with AIDS and in fighting the disease. “We have a national responsibility to alleviate the HIV/AIDS-related suffering of African-Americans by ensuring that they have full knowledge of—and access to—all proven forms of HIV prevention, treatment and care,” says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The 10th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is February 7.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2007, African Americans/blacks were 13% of the U.S. population, but represented 51% of all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed. Data also showed blacks represented 70% of all gonorrhea cases and black women are increasingly becoming a high-risk group, largely because of heterosexual interactions. In 2007, the prevalence of HIV in the black community was almost eight times that of the white community.

Click here for statistics from the CDC