Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a day to raise awareness of the devastating impact that HIV and AIDS have had on Black people in America (and the World):
On Friday February 6th, Black AIDS Institute released an update to last year's ground-breaking report called "Left Behind: State of AIDS in Black America" which pointed out, among other things, that if African-Americans were their own country, they would be the 16th most impacted country in the world by AIDS, ahead of Botswana, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Namibia, Rwanda or Vietnam — 7 of the 15 countries that receive support from the U.S. Government's anti-AIDS program PEPFAR.• When we look at HIV/AIDS by race and ethnicity, we see that African Americans
have more illness (even though blacks account for about 13% of the U.S.
population, they account for about half (49%) of the people who get HIV and
AIDS; shorter survival times (Blacks with AIDS often don’t live as long as people
of other races and ethnic groups with AIDS); and more deaths (for African
Americans and other blacks, HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death.
• HIV/AIDS affects black children the most. In 2005, 104 (63%) of the 166 children
under the age of 13 diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 33 states were black.
• According to information from 33 states, during 2005, among men, 41% of men
living with HIV/AIDS were black; among women, 64% of women living with
HIV/AIDS were black.
• Of all black men living with HIV/AIDS, the primary transmission category was
sexual contact with other men, followed by injection drug use and high-risk
heterosexual contact.
• Of all black women living with HIV/AIDS, the primary transmission category was
high-risk heterosexual contact, followed by injection drug use.
• Of the estimated 141 infants perinatally infected with HIV, 91 (65%) were Black
(CDC, HIV/AIDS Reporting System, unpublished data, December 2006).
• Of the estimated 18,849 people under the age of 25 whose diagnosis of
HIV/AIDS was made during 2001–2004 in the 33 states with HIV reporting,
11,554 (61%) were Black.
• Since the beginning of the epidemic, blacks have accounted for 397,548 (42%) of
the estimated 952,629 AIDS cases diagnosed in the 50 states and the District of
Columbia.
Get Tested! Know your HIV status and the status of your sexual partners.
