Some Thoughts for the Black Community on World AIDS Day
What is World Aids Day?
December 1st is World AIDS Day, a day to reflect and take stock of the worldwide impact of HIV and AIDS on communities and families. For those who are active in the areas of HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment I applaud you. For those of us who are not in those professions today still offers us a moment to reflect on the current situation in the US and worldwide and inform ourselves on the current state of the AIDS crisis and what we can do to protect ourselves, our families and the world community.
Around the World
Currently there are over 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, with 1.5 million of those living in the U.S. Of those 33 million, nearly half are women and 2 million are children under the age of 15. Although new HIV infections are on the decline in sub-Saharan Africa, the disease still represents a growing epidemic as 1.8 million new infections occurred in 2009 alone. While some areas have seen a decline in HIV, others have seen a dramatic increase. For example, World Aids Day states that over 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK, which is triple what it was 10 years ago.
Here at Home
According to the same study cited above, there are 1.5 million people in the U.S. living with HIV. Although the overall rate of new infections has slowed, the problem in the black community continues to worsen. According to the Black Aids Institute, black people make up 54% of the new cases of HIV in America and 70% of the new HIV cases are our black youth. Our inner cities are so infected with the HIV epidemic that there many have areas labeled as "Hot Zones" where medical, psychiatric and HIV professionals are desperately reaching out to educate, test and treat our young black men and women.
What You Can Do
The good news is that more and more people are living with HIV thanks to the over 30 HIV/AIDS-related drugs on the market. The bad news is that there are more HIV positive people in the dating pool, which increases your risk of infection. According to the 2010 UNAIDS.org Global Report in the US there is a 19 times Increase in likelihood that an African-American female will acquire HIV, compared to her Caucasian counterpart. Anyone who is sexually active, especially young black men and women, need to take precautions.
The first and most important step you can take is to go get tested. If you are not sure where to go or how to do it check out this article on finding a test center. If you find out that you are positive, there are many resources that can help you and the test center will be very helpful in pointing you in the right direction. If you are fortunate enough to not have HIV just be smart. Don't engage in unprotected sex with anyone who hasn't been tested or you are unsure about. For the brothers, it is not worth risking your life for he quick thrill of unprotected sex. For the sisters – stay strong and don't give in to the pressure, lines, excuses, etc. of a man telling you to have unprotected sex. If he can't bring a condom to the party, or he is unwilling to get one you should probably dump him anyway. A condom is $1 and there are many places you can get them for free (like at the test center). Only a fool would risk his life for a $1 but there are too many black men and women doing just that.
Questions and Answers
This article of mine is about facts and figures associated with AIDS and its prognosis.
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