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Twenty-five years after the emergence of HIV/AIDS as a predominantly white, gay man’s disease, the unfortunate truth is that HIV/AIDS is now striking the African American community in a very real and powerful way. While blacks only comprise 13 percent of the population, we currently account for 47 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases.
As with most health issues, we generally receive the diagnoses later and receive a less consistent level of health treatment than the general population. I have attended several AIDS conferences to learn firsthand how this disease affects our community and just how health and government agencies charged with stopping the spread of this disease go about their work. Several things have become crystal clear to me. In this day of seeing Magic Johnson in good health and having read about and met numerous 10-20 year survivors, it is shocking that almost everyone I meet at these conferences is still burying friends and family. We are continuing to die at an alarming rate from our own behaviors and a lack of quality health care. There have been clear shortcomings in most government-funded outreach efforts in the past, and although there are current efforts to better match outreach and care with where it is most needed, much more needs to be done to get our community to a place of “equal treatment.”
February 7, 2008, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and it is my sincerest hope that no less than one million of us will go out and avail ourselves of the free and low-cost testing that is available in urban areas. rolling out is providing a list of testing locations in your city and nationally. It is critical that we each know our HIV/AIDS status. We will continue to selfishly undermine the long-term health of our community, our loved ones and ourselves until we make this effort. If you care anything about yourself, you should use a male or female condom each time you have sex with someone who does not show you the paperwork to prove that they have had a negative test in the last six months. (Yes, you need to see the test results for yourself because people lie).
Make this your rule and stick with it. Likewise, you should be prepared to provide your partner(s) with your most recent results.
Now go get tested, live wisely and don’t become a statistic. –randy fling
