MEDICINE: An armada to fight AIDS in Rochester
The rate of new HIV infections among African Americans and Latinos in Monroe County is increasing at a pace that is disproportionately higher than the rate for whites. Health experts have known about the trend for several years; the data mirrors a national trend.
The Center for Disease Control found that in 2007, African Americans accounted for 45 percent of new HIV infections nationally, even though they represent only 12 percent of the population. Hispanics and Latinos, though only 15 percent of the population, accounted for 17 percent of new HIV infections.
But reaching people of color with prevention and testing information is a persistent challenge. And encouraging them to participate in HIV vaccine trials is even more difficult.
In 2007, New York spent $48 million on prevention programs, and another $6.5 million for expanded HIV testing in African-American communities. But indications are that the infection rate is still rising.
A coalition, more like an armada, of nearly two-dozen Rochester health and social-service agencies, as well as faith organizations, is trying to refocus public attention on how HIV/AIDS continues to ravage the city's minority communities.
The group will hold "Hope Takes Action: A Road to Victory for Rochester" on Saturday, November 21, to kick-start the initiative. The event - a combination of music, food, education, and advocacy - is at the Auditorium Theater from 4 to 8 p.m., and is free and open to the public.
More people in the African-American community are being tested for HIV, says Stephaun Clipper, prevention and programs manager with the MOCHA Center. But overcoming fear and trust issues, considering the devastating impact of the Tuskegee Experiment, he says, is a major hurdle for health-care professionals working with African Americans.
Racism also contributes to the problem, Clipper says. Environmental factors and socio-economic differences, he says, can lead to ambivalence.
"If I'm a person that feels I do not have the same access as the larger culture, I may not be as receptive," he says.
For Adelik Rivera, a caseworker at McCree McCuller Wellness Center, the obstacle is language. Speaking basic Spanish isn't enough.
"People come from many different countries where the regional dialects are almost like different languages," she says.
And, she says, information is often presented in medical terms many Latinos don't understand.
"The community is actually very open to talking about sex and sexual orientation," she says. "But we have to speak in plain and simple words."
Poverty is the other obstacle for the Latino community, Rivera says.
"They're not as concerned about their health as we would like them to be," she says. "They are more concerned with putting a roof over their heads and food on the table. Health problems of any kind, even HIV, are just not their highest priority."
Reaching undocumented workers, Rivera says, is extremely difficult.
"Right now, it is such a delicate subject," she says. "They might come in for testing, but they may not give you accurate information."
Getting more people of color to participate in the University of Rochester's HIV vaccine trials - especially in the local HVTN 505 study, is the coalition's other goal. The HVTN 505 study is a follow-up to the previous study for high-risk groups that ended in 2007.
The UR's HIV Vaccine Trials Unit has gone so far as to re-brand itself as the "Rochester Victory Alliance," in part to avoid inhibiting people from volunteering. A common misconception is that the vaccine will transmit the disease.
It is critically important for people from the high-risk minority communities to participate in the trials, says Dr. Michael Keefer, associate director of the UR's HIV vaccine trials. The trials, he says, have raised new questions about transmission, the number of vaccines needed, and dosages. It's the type of work that can't be gleaned using animal models.
"We need their help to map a way forward," he says.
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