World AIDS Day 2006
By Phill Wilson
AIDS in America today is a black disease that can only be stopped if each of us does our part--from churches to civil rights organization, from media organizations to academic institutions, cultural organizations to policy making bodies, every institution in Black America must make ending the AIDS epidemic a top priority. No matter how you look at it, thru the lens of gender, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status or region of the country where you live, black people bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic in this country. African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population, but we represent nearly 50 percent (or 600,000) of the estimated 1.2 million Americans living with AIDS. Blacks account for 54 percent of the new diagnosis in the country, 63 percent of the new cases among youth, and nearly 70 percemt of the new cases among women. Fortunately, our institutions are beginning to step forward. During the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto in August, the Black AIDS Institute in partnership with major civil rights organizations issued a Call to Action that was answered by politicians and leaders of eight civic organizations. These forward-thinking leaders agreed to take action to reduce the HIV rates in Black Americans over the next five years; to increase the percentage of African Americans living with HIV who know their HIV status; to increase the percentage of African Americans living with HIV who are in appropriate care and treatment. Since then, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and President Bruce Gordon publicly took HIV tests during the organization’s national conference in Washington, D.C., and encouraged the thousands of people present to also take the test. As part of the 9th Annual World AIDS Day commemorate, Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the 30,000-member The Potter’s House will publicly take an HIV test during a church-sponsored community AIDS rally in Dallas. We’re on the right road, but a long way from ending the epidemic. The CDC estimates that at least 25 percent of the 1.2 million Americans with HIV are unaware of their status. The agency is recommending that routine HIV testing be implemented in all health care facilities, including emergency rooms. People who don’t know they’re infected are less likely to protect their partners and completely unable to receive treatment. In order to keep those already infected healthy and to help them avoid the further spread of the virus, we have to identify them and get them into care. The operative here is “getting them into care.” Before we can get people into care we must encourage the black community to take ownership of the disease, to understand the science of the disease and to participate in comprehensive, age-appropriate and culturally-competent prevention methods. This year’s World AIDS Day theme is “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” Ending AIDS is possible and achievable, as long as we mobilize our resources, put aside our differences and fight like our lives depend on it. We’re calling on Black America — from individuals to political, religious and cultural leaders — to commit to taking action against HIV/AIDS by engaging in a coordinated campaign to develop a national commitment to end the AIDS epidemic in our communities by making fighting AIDS a top priority and setting concrete measurable goals and objectives with real deadlines. Black leaders, institutions and cultural icons must identify strategies and activities that match their unique niches and capabilities. We must build a new sense of urgency in Black America, so that no one accepts the idea that the presence of HIV and AIDS is inevitable.