Rate Of Aids Diagnoses For African Americans example essay topic

The Growing Epidemic of AIDS / HIV In the African-American Community By Idris Abdul Zahir In the early 1980's Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer usually associated with elderly men of Mediterranean ethnicity. Eventually the men wasted away and died. As the realization that gay men were dying of an otherwise rare cancer began to spread throughout the homosexual and later the medical communities. The syndrome began to be called by the colloquialism 'Gay Cancer'. As medical scientists researched, they discovered that the syndrome included other manifestations, such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). A rare form of pneumonia caused by protozoa, its name was changed to 'GRID', or Gay Related Immune Deficiency.

The effect that the stigma of homosexuality had on the general public's perception and handling of the disease cannot be overlooked. Within the medical community, it quickly became apparent that the disease was not specific to gay men (as blood transfusion patients, heroin users, heterosexual women and newborn babies became added to the list of afflicted), and the renamed the syndrome (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in misconception holds that the disease was introduced by a gay male flight attendant, named Ga etan Dugas, referred to as 'Patient Zero'. However, subsequent research has revealed that there were cases of AIDS much earlier than initially known. It has also been theorized that a series of inoculations against hepatitis that were performed in the gay community of San Francisco were tainted with HIV. There is a high correlation between recipients of that vaccination and initial cases of AIDS, though this of course has never been proven to be accurate. Since the turn of the century, the overall health of all Americans has improved substantially.

Although advances in medical and scientific technology have improved the health status of the American people, there is a growing concern and recognition that African-Americans have not benefited equally from the fruits of science. Whereas these facts are not 'new news,' it is apparent that most of the public and the scientific community are not fully aware of the full impact of these problems. There are government agencies that aim to provide health services to minorities: the Office of Minority Health (which seeks to develop health policies beneficial to minorities) and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (which seeks to promote minority health and eliminate health disparities). On June 23, 2004 President George W. Bush spoke at a press conference in Philadelphia, Pa. where he announced his latest HIV / AIDS initiative. He revealed his plan to add $20 million toward current efforts to deliver life-saving HIV / AIDS-related drugs to those in America without access. The number is significant because black women represent a disproportionate number of AIDS-infected cases in the United States.

However, the fact remains that president did not use the opportunity he had in Philadelphia to mention the fastest growing segment of AIDS-infected Americans: black women. The health status of African-Americans and other ethnic minorities became a national priority with the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960's. Most African Americans suffer from poorer health than the non-minority populations. They die in larger numbers and suffer more illnesses and incidence of disease than the nation as a whole. African-Americans represent an increasing proportion of the population in the United States. The fate of specially oppressed sectors of society-black people, immigrants and women-is in large part determined by the course of class and social struggle.

Coming out of the struggles of the civil rights movement was a brief moment of the broadening out of public health care, most notably the passage of the Medicaid and Medicare programs, however inferior and substandard. Today, massive cutbacks in Medicaid keep coming down the pike every year. Some 55 percent of people living with AIDS rely on Medicaid. Because of federal cutbacks, nearly every state is cutting back on Medicaid coverage. This will impact HIV-positive people, not to mention poor people in general. The 1980 Bureau of the Census report indicated that one out of five persons in the United States is a member of a minority group, and that African-Americans are the single largest minority group, constituting 11.5 percent of the country's total population.

The number of African-Americans in 1980 was 26.5 million, an increase of approximately 17 percent over the 1970 census figures. Race and ethnicity are not, by themselves, risk factors for HIV infection. However, African Americans are more likely to face challenges associated with risk for HIV infection. Of persons given a diagnosis of AIDS since 1995, a smaller proportion of African Americans (60%) were alive after 9 years compared with American Indians and Alaska Natives (64%), Hispanics (68%), whites (70%), and Asians and Pacific Islanders (77%). During 2000-2003, HIV / AIDS rates for African American females were 19 times the rates for white females and 5 times the rates for Hispanic females; they also exceeded the rates for males of all races / ethnicities other than African Americans.

Rates for African American males were 7 times those for white males and 3 times those for Hispanic males who died with AIDS in 2003. According to the 2000 Census, African Americans make up 12.3% of the US population. However, they have accounted for 368,169 (40%) of the 929,985 estimated AIDS cases diagnosed since the epidemic began By the end of December 2003, an estimated 195,891 African Americans with AIDS had died. During 2000-2003, African Americans accounted for 21,304 (49%) of the 43,171 estimated AIDS cases diagnosed in the United States.

The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African Americans was almost 10 times the rate for whites and almost 3 times the rate for Hispanics. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African American women was 25 times the rate for white women. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for African American men was 8 times the rate for white men. By the end of December 2003, an estimated 195,891 African Americans with AIDS had died.

In the United States, 172,278 African Americans were living with AIDS. They accounted for 42% of all people in the United States living with AIDS. African Americans accounted for 16,165 (50%) of the 32,048 estimated new HIV / AIDS. A study of people with a diagnosis of HIV infection found that 56% of late testers (that is, those who received an AIDS diagnosis within 1 year after their HIV diagnosis) were African American.

Late testing represents missed opportunities for preventing and treating HIV infection. Studies suggest that most new infections occur among young African Americans. The HIV / AIDS epidemic is a health crisis for African Americans. In 2001, HIV / AIDS was among the top 3 causes of death for African American men aged 25-54 years and among the top 4 causes of death for African American women aged 20-54 years. It was the number 1 cause of death for African American women aged 25-34 years. The leading cause of HIV infection among African American men was sexual contact with other men; the next leading causes were heterosexual contact and injection drug use.

These figures are staggering, and black women are most likely to contract the disease through unprotected sex. African American women are most likely to be infected with HIV as a result of sex with men... Often these women fear their partners will leave them if they insist on using a condom during sex. They may not be aware of their male partners' possible risks for HIV infection such as unprotected sex with multiple partners, bisexuality, or injection drug use.

In 2003, Benoit Deniz et-Lewis chronicled the secret lives of black men across the country that lead openly heterosexual lives in front of friends and family members; they also lead a second life. These men meet at clubs and have sex with each other. Yet, they refuse to consider themselves gay, and they refuse to give up the sexual relationships they have with the women in their lives. Denial runs deep for women and men in the black community. In addition to the secrets these men keep, they risk contracting STDs and passing, them on to their female partners. Many of these Men who sleep with other Men (or, MSM, as they " re called) live lives of denial, believing that they will not be infected with HIV despite not wearing protection during sex.

These women and men play a dangerous game of roulette with their lives. Not only do they risk infection from any unprotected sexual encounters, they risk infecting their partners because of their refusal to talk about their sexual practices. According to a recent study of HIV infected and noninfected African American men who have sex with men (MSM), approximately 20% of the study participants reported having had a female sex partner during the preceding 12 months. In another study of HIV-infected persons, 34% of African American MSM reported having had sex with women, even though only 6% of African American women reported having had sex with a bisexual man. Drug abuse is the second leading cause of HIV infections for blacks. In addition, drug users are more likely to be sexually promiscuous which increases their risk for attracting HIV.

For years, drug abuse was the chief way black men contracted HIV. By 2002, however, the chief cause of infection was unprotected sex by men who sleep with men. Injection drug use is the 2nd leading cause of HIV infection for African American women and the 3rd leading cause of HIV infection for African American men. In addition to being at risk from sharing needles, casual and chronic substance users are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex, when they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Drug use can also affect treatment success. A recent study of HIV-infected women found that drug users were less likely than nonusers to take their medicines exactly as prescribed. The highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are those for African Americans. In 2003, African Americans were 20 times as likely as whites to have gonorrhea and 5.2 times as likely to have syphilis. Partly because of physical changes caused by STDs, including genital lesions that can serve as an entry point for HIV, the presence of certain STDs can increase one's chances of contracting HIV by 3- to 5-fold. Similarly, a person who is co infected has a greater chance of spreading HIV to others.

Nearly 1 in 4 African Americans lives in poverty. Studies have found an association between higher AIDS incidence and lower income. The socioeconomic problems associated with poverty, including limited access to high-quality health care and HIV prevention education, directly or indirectly increase HIV risk. A recent study of HIV transmission among African American women in North Carolina found that women with HIV infection were more likely than noninfected women to be unemployed, receive public assistance, have had 20 or more lifetime sexual partners, have a lifetime history of genital herpes infection, have used crack or cocaine, or have traded sex for drugs, money, or shelter. Among all people in the United States, the annual number of new HIV infections has declined from a peak in the mid-1980's of more than 150,000 and stabilized since the late 1990's at approximately 40,000. Minority populations are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic.

To reduce further the incidence of HIV, the CDC announced a new initiative, Advancing HIV Prevention, in 2003. This initiative comprises 4 strategies: making HIV testing a routine part of medical care, implementing new models for diagnosing HIV infections outside medical settings, preventing new infections by working with HIV-infected persons and their partners, and further decreasing prenatal HIV transmission. The following are some CDC-funded prevention programs that state and local health departments and community-based organizations provide for African Americans. A program in Washington, DC provides information to, and conducts HIV prevention activities for, MSM who don't identify himself or herself as homosexual. The activities include a telephone help line; an Internet resource; and a program in barbershops that includes risk-reduction workshops, condom distribution, and the training of barbers to be peer educators. A program in Chicago provides social support to help difficult-to-reach African American men reduce high-risk behaviors.

This program also provides high-risk women with culturally appropriate, gender-specific prevention and risk-reduction messages. A program in South Carolina focuses on changing behaviors in adolescents in ways that will reduce their risk of contracting HIV and other STDs. The CDC, through the Minority AIDS Initiative, also addresses the health disparities experienced in the communities of minority races / at high risk for HIV. These funds are used to address the high-priority HIV prevention needs in such communities. The CDC provides intramural training for minority researchers through a program called Research Fellowships on HIV Prevention in Communities of Color. Additionally, recognizing the importance of conducting culturally competent research and programs.

The CDC established the extramural Minority HIV / AIDS Research Initiative (MARI) in 2002 to create partnerships between CDC epidemiologists and researchers who are members of minority races / and who work in communities of color. MARI funds epidemiological and preventive studies of HIV in minority communities and encourages the career development of young investigators. The CDC invests $2 million per year in the program and since 2003 has funded 13 junior investigators at 12 sites across the country. Through a uniform system, CDC receives reports of AIDS cases from all US states and territories. Since the beginning of the epidemic, these data have been used to monitor trends because they are representative of all areas. The data are statistically adjusted for reporting delays and for the redistribution of cases initially reported without risk factors.

As treatment has become more available, trends in new AIDS diagnoses no longer accurately represent trends in new HIV infections; these data now represent persons who are tested late in the course of HIV infection, who have limited access to care, or in whom treatment has failed. Monitoring trends in the HIV epidemic today requires collecting information on HIV cases that have not progressed to AIDS. Areas with confidential name-based HIV infection reporting requirements use the same uniform system for data collection on HIV cases as for AIDS cases. A total of 33 areas-the US Virgin Islands and 32 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) -have collected these data for at least 5 years, providing sufficient data to monitor HIV trends and to estimate risk behaviors for HIV infection. Recently, 9 additional areas have begun confidential name-based HIV surveillance, and data from these areas will be included in coming years.

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