AIDS is on the rise among young black males in our own country, especially in D.C. and Southern urban areas. Seven of the 10 states with the highest HIV rates are in the South (quelle surprise!). Nationally, 2% of African-American males are HIV+. 44% of new cases in 2009 were found in African-American men, 8-9 times the rate of white men. Having sex with men continues to be a high risk behavior (61%) but heterosexual transmission is on the rise (27%). (Another advantage to being single????) Blacks are even more disproportionately represented among the 23% of new diagnoses that occur in females, at 57%, while white females make up only 15%. Black men and women also have the highest mortality rates from infection. At least transmission from drug use has been steadily falling.
We’ve made dramatic progress in treatment and prevention measures here at home. Some people are in indefinite remissions. However, poverty affects incidence and treatment in our own country. Poor minorities are more likely to become HIV+ and to eventually suffer more from AIDS symptoms. Granted, we don’t have the same incidence and humanitarian crisis they are seeing in Africa and SE Asia. Still, it’s hard to justify sending $7B overseas when we have Americans who can’t get treatment. We place low value on their lives, too.
