Re: AIDS Is Becoming an Epidemic of Silence Among Blacks

[Barneks@aol.com]

Any ideas on what can be done?

Seventeen years after AIDS was first recognized among gay white men in New
York and San Francisco, the disease in this country is becoming largely an
epidemic among black people, quietly devastating families and neighborhoods,
yet all but ignored by leading black institutions. 

African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population. But they now
account for about 57 percent of all new infections with human immunodeficiency
virus, which causes AIDS, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Among people aged 13 to 24, the estimate, based on data
collected from 25 states between January 1994 and June 1997, is even higher:
63 percent. 

The situation in the United States is not nearly as dire; the recent
demographic shifts in the domestic epidemic are due more to a sharp drop in
cases among whites than an increase among blacks. 

  Nonetheless, as the racial disparities grow, many worry that AIDS will
become marginalized, just another inner-city problem, like crime or drugs or
graffiti. 

  AIDS services have not kept pace with the demographic changes. The lack of
education about the disease among poor black people is profound, in large part
because few prevention programs have been tailored to them.

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