One out of two with HIV in U.S. is black

[GSOgymrat]

Is this statistic accurate?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/29/martin.aids/index.html

[Cliff]

It doesn't look accurate, but at 41%+ it doesn't look widely off the mark either.  Maybe the 50% refers to new HIV cases (annually)? 

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#aidsrace

Either way, it doesn't look good.

[dixieman]

Its about new cases annually... and out of that statistic... 73% are women.... a so on... but, its not a big concern for heterosexuals its the homo's in the USA? ...

[Iggy]

According to the CDC's latest demographics study - the answer seems to be a probable Yes. 

Even if the projection studies based off of 33 states is not a perfect assessment, I do feel it is an alarming enough sampling.

"By Race/Ethnicity

Although blacks, or African Americans, made up only 13% of the population in the 33 states, they accounted for almost half of the estimated number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses made during 2006.

Race/ethnicity of persons (including children) with
HIV/AIDS diagnosed during 2006

Race/ethnicity of persons with a new HIV diagnosis in 2006 Asian/Pacific Islanders 1% American Idian/Alaska Native <1% Black 49% Whilt 30% Hispanic 18% No. 35,314

Note. Based on data from 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting."

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/us.htm



[attachment deleted by admin]

[Winiroo]

I am in Dallas and I've used a county HIV clinic for my health care since 1992. Over the years I have seen the clients change from primarily gay white men to more persons of color and a lot more women. I used to be one of only a handful of women in the clinic.

[Basquo]

So do you think they're going to ban women and blacks from donating blood now? I bet we'd have a cure in 3 years of that were to happen.

[WellHungarian]

I read a story in the news I think two days ago that said black people had a gene that made them more susseptible to catching hiv.  it's more common in those who are african instead of african american but a high percent of african americans also have this gene.

[Oceanbeach]

The Medical Director of our local HIV clinic stated once in a Commission on AIDS meeting, "51% of all HIV cases, worldwide are women.  The statistics used at that meeting did not breakdown the numbers by race.

For the past couple of years, the Epidemiology Report of Sonoma County has shown the highest number of new HIV cases were:
1. Happily married women, with no drug history and over the age of 40.  This report has not stated race.
2.  Hispanic Men and Women
3. Black men
4. Gay White Men

Although this annual report is formed locally, using local data, it has been said to mirror national statistics.    Have the best day
Michael

[DCGUY2007]

Goes to show hiv effects everyone. Hiv first started out as a disease that primarily effected white males (gay). Most of the ones who got the disease early in the epidemic have now died from the disease. Now the disease is primarily effecting minorities. Then again I'm not so sure I trust the source of this information. Regardless I predict the next wave will be another group.
 
I am beginnning to wonder though if African Americans have something biologically that tends to make them more susceptible to hiv like sickle cell does. I say this because I  know plenty of white guys who do not practice safe sex and have sex with a lot of people but are still negative. There might be more to hiv then just playing unsafe. Stress factors, genetics etc might also play a role. I got hiv from being unsafe once with a white guy. I was never one to play unsafe and I have never used illegal drugs.  Most people told me I probably would be ok and be negative because it only happened once..but things turned out otherwise.

I have to say I also get a little tired of the news trying to portray black people as if they all go around having unsafe sex and that only black men are on the D.L. I have a newsflash for them. I know and have known plenty of white guys who are married and play around with men. Many of them even use drugs so why are so many still negative?  I really think there may be more to hiv than just unsafe sex. Then again it doesn't matter who it effects there needs to be a cure!!

[Iggy]

DC Guy, 

 I hope you don't mind I quoteyou a couple of times, but you raised a lot of great points.

Then again I'm not so sure I trust the source of this information.

I should have added (expanded) my own disclaimer about CDC data when I posted that link.  I agree that they are not the most unbiased nor perfect compilers and presenters of data.

I am beginnning to wonder though if African Americans have something biologically that tends to make them more susceptible to hiv like sickle cell does.

As Wellhungarian mentioned, there was a recent article on this:  http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-24-voa13.cfm

I have to say I also get a little tired of the news trying to portray black people as if they all go around having unsafe sex...

Frankly I feel the same way about media perception and presentation of gay white men.  Either we are trying to ruin the sacred institution of marriage by our drive to build legally recognized families, or we are whores who only care about the next trick; I'm not sure that is a racial issue though so much as media and public laziness in how to stereotype a group versus actually talk about them.

As far as the general rise of cases in the African American community, I think it has an awful lot to do with willful ignorance, both within the African American community's early view (as did most of America) that this was only an issue for gay white men to deal with, and with the gay white male community who still thinks that fighting for the rights of those affected with HIV (as well as the need to reach out to and help prevent it for those not yet infected) ends at the proverbial velvet rope of social circles and gatherings.

[Winiroo]

I am in Dallas and I've used a county HIV clinic for my health care since 1992. Over the years I have seen the clients change from primarily gay white men to more persons of color and a lot more women. I used to be one of only a handful of women in the clinic.

I failed to mention over the years I have noticed more persons who look as if they are deep into a drug addiction or possibly been clean for not very long. Also there are more persons who look very, very low income or possibly homeless in the clinic.

What I have not seen as often in the last few years are persons who are very frail and thin being pushed around in a wheel chair by a friend or loved one. That's a good thing.

[WellHungarian]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4345263.ece

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/16/MNRI11PM03.DTL

[Miss Philicia]

Oh, and it's not just African American women making up a large portion of the newly infected -- it's also gay men, except they're not white.  I see TONS of young black, latino, and asian men in the waiting room of my clinic.

And to a lesser extent there are 30-40 yo white gay men still being diagnosed, mostly from the other end of a crack pipe.  But yes, African American women certainly are wildly disproportionate as newly infected, and it's even more glaring here in Philadelphia as the demographics contribute to that -- this is the US's fifth largest city and African Americans are not the minority here, they are the majority (45%) with 23% below the poverty level.  Our AIDS organizations also service Camden, NJ which the FBI rates as the 3rd most dangerous locale in the country, and an entire 1/3 of that population lives below the poverty line.

It's the same in Wilmington, which is just 30 min. down the interstate.  Poverty, race, AIDS -- all tied together, unfortunately.  Seems rather regional too -- lump Baltimore and Washington into the Philadelphia metro region and you see what is approaching statistics in foreign countries.  It's simply horrific that there's not a coordinated domestic AIDS program, though I know one is being planned/advocated in the hopeful advent of President Obama.

I think the saddest thing is that all of these effected communities neglect/don't have access to early HIV testing, so they all show up at the local clinic with harder to treat cases of AIDS with 4 t-cells and numerous OI's.

Prevention and outreach programs must be tailor made to reach these folks, as it's an entirely new ballgame.  Handing out condoms in beauty parlors in North Philadelphia isn't the easiest of tasks... not to mention doing it in a church or even getting them to discuss the issue.

And as far as the 14-24 age group of gay men, the majority of which are NOT white, they don't even view themselves as gay... they're just sucking cock on the sly.  "Gay" is a word for white men, so how do you educate young people like that?  Sex education programs in public schools are a joke, and even where you're allowed to have them the students sit and laugh and don't take it seriously, IMO.

So yeah, you know what -- I kind of agree with Larry Kramer (for once in my life)...

[Peter6836]

Damn I knew it was that black guy I had great sex with. It is all his fault!!!!

We need more education in the African American Community. Black Gay, religion and mores make it soo difficult. We need to get out buts out and educate a population of fine people that we could loose to this damn epidemic.
Peter

[J.R.E.]

Here's another related article :


http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/07/29/black.aids.report/index.html


Ray

[allopathicholistic]

as far as informal/casual observation of my clinic i personally notice tons of black and latino patients

[GSOgymrat]

This article is interesting but the responses are even more illuminating.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/29/the-cavalry-is-not-coming-to-save-us/

[minismom]

Mini's PID office is part of the physicians' office center so there are numerous doctors / specialists who see patients from newborns - young adults.  Everyone sits together, so there's no way for me to tell how the demographics have changed here in WV, or if they have.  I can tell you that as of May 2008, Mini is still the last baby born HIV+ in our state.  That's not to say, however, that she was the last baby born to an HIV+ woman.

 I spoke with her PID about the general demographics of her patients and she stated that she's seeing a tremendous increase of HIV in teens, with the majority of those being a minority race.  Most of them aren't even stunned by the diagnosis.  Their attitude is more "give me the meds and all will be well."  She's also seeing an increase of girls, but not in boys which, if you think about it, is pretty scarey.  The teens and young adults are also among her worst as far as compliance.  She's holding her breath for an influx of infant pozzies and feels it's only a matter of time.

I agree that something has to be done.  I remember learning about HIV in my 8th grade science class.  Of course, that's when we were taught that you could "catch it" from drinking fountains, toilet seats, and shaking hands.  Now, no one talks about it and we're in a position to lose a fair percentage of our young people.  It's all so truly sad.

Mum

[loop78]

This article is interesting but the responses are even more illuminating.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/29/the-cavalry-is-not-coming-to-save-us/

Are those responses representative of the way people look at hiv in the US? Hope not.

*shivers*

[Winiroo]

This article is interesting but the responses are even more illuminating.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/29/the-cavalry-is-not-coming-to-save-us/

Thank you GSOgymrat. I enjoyed reading this article.
I think Pernessa Seele wrote it wonderfully. I applaud her and hope her message is heard.

On a personal note I think way too many people focus on blame. The comments below the article are for the most part falling into the blame game.

[DCGUY2007]

EVeryone I know who is poz is white. Everyone I know addicted or has been addicted to Crystal Meth is white ( I have never used it). From what I can tell over 90 percent of the people posting on this site who are poz is white. So does that mean most poz people are white? NO.  I personally know an R.N. who told me plenty of times how people with money would go to their own doctor to get tested for stds and then have their Doctor treat them without ever reporting the information to the CDC. Of course that was a while ago and  it is very difficult to do that now. But it did effect the information the CDC got.

Still just another study came out from CDC showing how hiv is more widespread then they thought. As we can see from most of the type of people posting here hiv doesn't discriminate. Some people may be more resistant then others because of a number of reasons but there are plenty of poz people of all races and sexual orientation.

Even if this study is true now, considering most of the people that post here are white I'm not sure what the reason was to even cite this information. Are we planning to go to predominately black communities to help stop the spread of hiv?

I am personally getting tired of always seeing so much negative information about black people on the news etc. Yes POOR people of all races have a lot of problems. Being a minority in any culture will cause all types of self esteem issues. But there are many many minorities that are doing well. I have four white friends who are poz with no college degree. Two are recovery crystal meth users. They all come from poor families who siblings have kids out of wedlock etc.  It doesn't matter but I find it interesting that I  don't see much of these type of people potrayed on the news. I for one am tired of seeing the same type of negative information portrayed about minorities over and over again. The news isn't balanced or studies for that matter.  Plus who controls these studies and news anyway? Hiv started as a gay white disease here. So now if it is moving into black communities how many of us are going to do something to help stop the spread of this disease in these communities? (Education, passing out literature, volunteering)


How is this study going to change the fact that everyone here has Hiv? It seems that we humans even when effected with something ourselves want to find a way to look at another group and say "what is wrong with them?" instead of looking in the mirror at ourselves.

[RapidRod]

How is this study going to change the fact that everyone here has Hiv? It seems that we humans even when effected with something ourselves want to find a way to look at another group and say "what is wrong with them?"

It tells them where more money and education needs to be placed. The study isn't meant to discriminate against anyone.

[DCGUY2007]

Good response. Interesting  though no one posted that response  in all the comments. I was shocked to see the comment I saw posted earlier and to see no one calling the person on it:

"So do you think they're going to ban women and blacks from donating blood now? I bet we'd have a cure in 3 years of that were to happen."

Comments like that are out of line and aren't true anyway. IN my opinion the reason we have had so much done for Hiv so far is that it initially affected mainly white males. Many young gay white males were the ones dying from this disease  first. But because so many people black, white, straight, gay, mothers etc organized to fight this disease with a big big help from groups like Act UP  we were able to have meds for treatment.

I for one know hiv is spreading a lot in our young gay population white and black. So is the use of crystal meth, which is effecting young white people in large numbers.

I worry about these studies sometimes because it gives one group of people the false illusion that they don't have to worry. When hiv initially started, white gay males were dying from it in very large numbers. Most people thought if they weren't a white gay male they were ok. We  now see that was wrong. Which group will it effect in large numbers next who thought they were also safe?  How would hiv look if we had mandatory testing of everyone now? I wonder.

[RapidRod]

Are you missing the point? The point is that HIV transmission is increasing in greater numbers in the heterosexual black population and the youth population. Could it be because more people are educated and go for testing before they are seriously ill with AIDS then when it was stated that HIV was a gay disease? As for blood banks, if the person fills out the questionares correctly then yes they will be banned from giving blood and that doesn't have anything to do with the color of ones skin.

[Basquo]

Good response. Interesting  though no one posted that response  in all the comments. I was shocked to see the comment I saw posted earlier and to see no one calling the person on it:

"So do you think they're going to ban women and blacks from donating blood now? I bet we'd have a cure in 3 years of that were to happen."

Comments like that are out of line and aren't true anyway. 

I guess you were so shocked it took you a few days to mention it.  I said that and I stand by it. Why do you think my comment is out of line? Becuase it shocked you?  My point was that gay men were and still are disallowed to donate blood.  Now that there appears to be other "high-risk" groups, no one is calling them "high-risk groups." But if they were treated the way gay men were treated, we'd be much further along in our fight against this disease.