This Era of Black Women and HIV/AIDS
Filed by: Rev Irene Monroe
December 1, 2008 1:30 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/12/this_era_of_black_women_and_hivaids_1.phpDecember 1 is World AIDS Day and Black women are dying of AIDS. And is anyone doing anything about it?
Right here in the nation's capitol, the HIV/AIDS epidemic rivals that of many Third World countries. Washington DC, affectionately dubbed as "Chocolate City," is approximately 60 percent of people of African descent. And of its residents, one in 20 is thought to have HIV, and 1 in 50 of its residents to have AIDS. Of the 3,269 HIV cases identified between 2001 and 2006, nine of 10 were African American.
Are these statistics overwhelming?
"The Washington data is really a microcosm of what we already know: that AIDS in America today is a black disease," said Phil Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank that focuses exclusively on AIDS among black Americans.
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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans account for half of all new HIV cases, despite comprising 13 percent of the U.S. population. Equally alarming is that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25 and 44.
