Half a million African Americans have HIV

Half a million African Americans have HIV, and although only 13 percent of the U.S. population, African Americans account for half of new HIV infections, according to a report by the Black Aids Institute.
The AIDS epidemic for Africans in America is severe as some parts of the African continent.
“AIDS in American today is a Black disease,” said Phil Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute.
This comes on the heals of a Center for Disease Control (CDC) report about new HIV/AIDS cases. It was previously estimated that 40,000 infections occured in 2006, but it is now estimated that there were 56,300 infections.
CDC’s new method estimates infection rates for African Americans at seven times higher than whites.
“The continued severity of the epidemic among Blacks underscores the need to sustain and accelerate prevention efforts in this population,” said the CDC.
“While race itself is not a risk factor for HIV infection, a range of issues contribute to the disproportionate HIV risk for African Americans in the U.S., including poverty, stigma and higher rates of other STDs, and drug use,” the CDC added. •H•
–Reginald James