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Blacks Now Account for Half Of All New HIV Infections; Homosexuality Still
Taboo
Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition)
05.30.01
Ann Carrns, Staff reporter for the WALL STREET JOURNAL
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TWENTY YEARS AFTER the first cases of AIDS were identified, the number of Americans
newly infected with the HIV virus has stabilized at an estimated 40,000 annually.
But policy makers, AIDS activists and even drug companies have begun to examine
why measures that have reduced the overall HIV infection rate in the U.S. don't
seem to be resonating with blacks.
African-Americans, who represent roughly 12% of the population, are now estimated
to account for more than half of the new infections, according to the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, one in every 50 black
men is believed to be HIV infected. Among adult females, who account for 30%of
new infections, black women account for 64% of new HIV cases. (Federal HIV infection
numbers are estimates because, in contrast with the AIDS cases, not all states
report HIV data to the CDC.)
It's unacceptable, in a rich nation like ours, to have 40,000 new infections
of what is a preventable disease, "says Helene Gayle, director of the CDC's
AIDS prevention center.
The higher infection rates among blacks result in part from enduring socioeconomic
disparities like lack of access to medical care. African-Americans are less likely
than whites to learn how to prevent infection, and they are more likely to be
infected without being diagnosed - and unwittingly pass the disease on to others.
They are also more likely to live in areas with high rates of sexually transmitted
diseases and other social ills. " Clients I see rarely have just HIV, "
says Patricia Kelly, executive director of Movers Inc., which begans as a church-affiliated
AIDS ministry in Miami in 1989. " It's HIV and substance abuse, HIV and domestic
violence, HIV and my kids are in foster, HIV and my family won't have anything
to do with me, HIV and I'm in jail."
Indeed, blacks are disproportionately represented in U.S. prisons, where HIV
infection rates are as much as six times as high as in the general population
because of needle sharing and unprotected sex. Upon release, former prisoners
may infect their sexual partners. " If a guy goes to prison and has sex with
a man, he doesn't consider himself gay when he comes out, " says Georgia
Foster, executive director of Positive Images of Broward County Inc., a Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., group that provides HIV testing and other services to disadvantaged women.
" He comes back and has sex with women, but never divulges to them that he
had sex in prison.
"There is also evidence that black men who have sex with men are generally
less likely to identify themselves as homosexual, suggesting that they may not
heed AIDS prevention programs meant to target gays. In a CDC study of nearly 8,800
HIV-positive men who reported having sex with other men, roughly 25% of blacks
identified themselves as heterosexual, compared with 15% for Hispanics and 6%
for whites.
Kevin McGruder, executive director of Gay Men of African Descent, a New York
nonprofit organization, argues that black men may not call themselves "gay"
because they consider it to be largely a white designation. He also says that
black men may be less likely to be "publicly" gay because they have
fewer institutional support systems, such as black-oriented gay outreach agencies
or medical clinics that understand their background.
The Balm In Gilead is the only organization in the United States dedicated
exclusively to empowering churches in the struggle against the devastation of
HIV/AIDS in the Black community. The Balm In Gilead's pioneering achievements
have enabled thousands of churches to become leaders in preventing HIV by providing
comprehensive educational programs and offering compassionate support to encourage
those infected to seek and maintain treatment.
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