One Question on Black AIDS Day: Do We Care Enough To End It?
More than a million Americans are currently living with HIV/AIDS, and roughly half of them are black. This is one of the most striking disparities in public health, and today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, meant to draw attention to it. I’ve written about HIV here and abroad for many years, and there’s much to say on the who, what and why of this disparity. Suffice to say, HIV preys upon poverty worldwide, so no surprise that when a quarter of black Americans are living in poverty, HIV infection rates are so high.
As with many things in public health, the data that’s supposed to help us understand the challenges can be overwhelming. But I’ve long felt there’s one chart that most clearly explains the narrative of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, and says everything about the challenges we now face. It’s below, and it shows AIDS diagnoses over the course of the epidemic. In the late 1990s, right about when taxpayer-developed lifesaving drugs hit the market and America declared victory over HIV, the epidemic split: Black diagnoses continued climbing as a share of overall diagnoses, while white diagnoses plummeted. In other words, in the part of America where people had access to care, the epidemic changed dramatically; elsewhere, it didn’t.
This year marks 30 years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control first reported cases of the condition scientists would eventually identify as AIDS. Colorlines will be reporting on and talking about that unhappy anniversary all year, and in many cases in partnership with the Black AIDS Institute, an organization I worked with for many years. Today, the Institute released its latest State of AIDS in Black America report, which you can find [by clicking the official website's link after the source]. It’s take-home: the Obama administration’s crafting of America’s first overarching strategy for dealing with the epidemic was a huge victory last year, but that victory is meaningless if Congress and the administration don’t now fund and implement that strategy.
There are many, complex factors driving the black AIDS epidemic, from the much discussed stigma to the much less discussed basic access to meaningful health care. We’ll be parsing these throughout the year. But in the end, as the graph above suggests, today’s epidemic is also shaped dramatically by one factor: whether our government takes it seriously enough to end it, in all parts of our society.
Source & Official Website of Black AIDS Day.
Sorry to go from such an epic/fun post (which is still going strong, so keep contributing!) to such a depressing one so quickly.
Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six
More than a million Americans are currently living with HIV/AIDS, and roughly half of them are black. This is one of the most striking disparities in public health, and today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, meant to draw attention to it. I’ve written about HIV here and abroad for many years, and there’s much to say on the who, what and why of this disparity. Suffice to say, HIV preys upon poverty worldwide, so no surprise that when a quarter of black Americans are living in poverty, HIV infection rates are so high.
As with many things in public health, the data that’s supposed to help us understand the challenges can be overwhelming. But I’ve long felt there’s one chart that most clearly explains the narrative of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, and says everything about the challenges we now face. It’s below, and it shows AIDS diagnoses over the course of the epidemic. In the late 1990s, right about when taxpayer-developed lifesaving drugs hit the market and America declared victory over HIV, the epidemic split: Black diagnoses continued climbing as a share of overall diagnoses, while white diagnoses plummeted. In other words, in the part of America where people had access to care, the epidemic changed dramatically; elsewhere, it didn’t.
This year marks 30 years since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control first reported cases of the condition scientists would eventually identify as AIDS. Colorlines will be reporting on and talking about that unhappy anniversary all year, and in many cases in partnership with the Black AIDS Institute, an organization I worked with for many years. Today, the Institute released its latest State of AIDS in Black America report, which you can find [by clicking the official website's link after the source]. It’s take-home: the Obama administration’s crafting of America’s first overarching strategy for dealing with the epidemic was a huge victory last year, but that victory is meaningless if Congress and the administration don’t now fund and implement that strategy.
There are many, complex factors driving the black AIDS epidemic, from the much discussed stigma to the much less discussed basic access to meaningful health care. We’ll be parsing these throughout the year. But in the end, as the graph above suggests, today’s epidemic is also shaped dramatically by one factor: whether our government takes it seriously enough to end it, in all parts of our society.
Source & Official Website of Black AIDS Day.
Sorry to go from such an epic/fun post (which is still going strong, so keep contributing!) to such a depressing one so quickly.
Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six
Did you even read the article?
The government CAN do so much about AIDS in general- but they aren't. No, we'd rather put money into funding legislation that kills women. To me, HIV/AIDS isn't a "black" problem. It's an American problem, just like rabies and polio and cholera once were. It's disturbing to see so little attention given to this issue, despite all the science and facts we have about the disease. This isn't 1978. This isn't the GRID era anymore. This isn't a disease relegated to gay musicians and black people of any ancestry in science anymore. Viruses don't discriminate, and neither should we. I kind of wonder whether or not these people realise how many of us marry inter-racially? Not all of us are really white, even if we look white on the outside. (Seriously, how does a really white guy with red hair and a really white lady with blonde hair have a dark-skinned son with poofy black hair? Because that's my dad's situation. LOL.)
I think AIDS stats might be higher all across the board, though, since I think there are entire groups untargeted by awareness adverts and who lack funding. In recent years, it isn't just PoC that aren't going to get tested for a variety of reasons. I can't tell you how many straight white guys who once had plenty of money to get tested, but never did. Why? They still thought that only gay or black people get AIDS. So how do we count people who have never been tested? Or people who are asymptomatic and therefore didn't even think about getting tested?
I'm wondering how the trend would differ if testing was mandatory for everyone in, say, 12th grade or something, the way certain vaccines are mandatory to enter school. It wouldn't cover everyone, but considering how many people have sex before 18, it would help cover more people. This would be paid for with taxpayer money. I would be happy for taxes to go up by 1% if it meant knowing that everyone 17-18 was tested just once and given better sex ed. Even by federal poverty standards, my family is dirt-poor. Food is a weekly issue, and the only reason we keep the internet is for work-related stuff. Even then, I would be happy to pay more if it meant better healthcare for the people who need it most. It has a dual purpose: show which communities are hit hardest by AIDS, and maybe, just maybe, see if more white people than expected have HIV/AIDS... and maybe use that to scare some more money into clinics and better education. No more of this "only gay/poc people get AIDS" bullshit. ::sighs:: I doubt it would work, though.