''I AM GAY'' Ads Send Message To Local African-American Community

''I AM GAY'' Ads Send Message To Local African-American Community

Rochester City News: Hope Takes Action: A Road to Victory for Rochester

MEDICINE: An armada to fight AIDS in Rochester

By Tim Louis Macaluso on November 11, 2009

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.

African American's and the Gay Rights Movement

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/byron-williams/african-american-communit_b_177790.html

Blacks Still Disproportionately Affected by HIV/AIDS; Not News To Me...

UNITED STATES: "US Blacks Continue to Bear the Brunt of HIV/AIDS"
Reuters Health (02.06.09)

African-American men and women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said ahead of Saturday's ninth annual Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

African Americans comprise 12 percent of the US population but account for almost half of new HIV infections and nearly half of all Americans living with the virus. CDC data found that in 2006, more new HIV infections occurred among young black men who have sex with men than in any other segment of the US population, the NIAID statement noted.

"To win the battle against HIV, it is crucial that African Americans - and indeed all Americans - get tested for the virus during routine medical care, as the CDC and the American College of Physicians recommend," said Fauci. Of the 1.1 million Americans who have HIV, 20 percent do not know they are infected.

"Increasingly, scientific evidence indicates that beginning treatment for HIV as early as possible in the course of infection has advantages for infected individuals, their partners and their communities," Fauci said. "Early treatment appears to improve the odds of staying healthier longer."

"Treatment is no substitute for prevention, however," Fauci added. "NIAID-funded investigators are working to develop and validate new methods to protect against HIV infection." The institute is conducting HIV/AIDS research that specifically benefits African Americans.

For information on NIAID-sponsored HIV/AIDS clinical trials that are open to participants, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov.

McCain Endorses Threats to Obama

McCain was speaking today in New Mexico, doing his usual personal attack on Barack Obama, as the stock market plummeted (you can see the ticker next to McCain, dropping as he speaks - an apt reminder of what McCain was refusing to talk about today), and McCain asked the crowd "who is Barack Obama?" Immediately you hear a McCain supporter yell "terrorist." McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting.

This is the man that many of you apparently want as President? Someone who would irresponsibly endorse hatred and violence? I am truly appauled, not by his actions (because I expect this from him); but at the American people whose values and perspective are in alignment with his.....

THIS IS REALLY SOME SCARY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!

CDC Says 1.1 Million Americans Infected with HIV

UNITED STATES: "CDC Says 1.1 Million Americans Infected with HIV"
Reuters (10.02.08):: Will Dunham

An estimated 1.1 million Americans were living with HIV at the end of 2006, CDC reported Thursday. The prevalence rate, 447.8 cases per 100,000 population, was based on reports of new HIV infections from 40 states with the best data, AIDS diagnoses and deaths from all 50 states, and extended back-calculation. The number of people living with HIV is growing as more people become infected and as effective treatments delay AIDS-related deaths.

The estimate is similar to a 2003 CDC report that more than 1 million Americans had HIV. Using the improved surveillance data, CDC now estimates that 994,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in 2003.

"These data really show the continued impact that the epidemic is having on Americans, and they really reinforce the severe toll that is expected on multiple communities," said Richard Wolitski, acting chief of CDC's HIV/AIDS prevention division.

The data show the epidemic disproportionately affects African Americans and gay and bisexual men. Males comprised 74.8 percent of prevalent HIV cases; 48.1 percent of all cases were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. High-risk heterosexual sex accounted for 27.6 percent of infections, including 72.4 percent of cases among women. Injection drug use was the cause of 18.5 percent of HIV cases. African Americans represented 46.1 percent of all people living with HIV in 2006.

In 2006, one in five Americans with HIV - 232,700 - did not know they were infected.

"We're not going to be able to treat our way out of this epidemic," Wolitski said. "We need to have strong prevention programs so we can prevent these infections from occurring in the first place."

The report, "HIV Prevalence Estimates - United States, 2006," was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2008;57(39):1073-1076).