HIV Awareness: Low Income, High Risk

With more than 450,000 African-Americans estimated to have been diagnosed with AIDS since the disease became recognized in the early 1980s, HIV has impacted the black community more than any other race.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has launched two recent studies (one aimed at black gay and bisexual men and the other at impoverished, inner-city women) to find out how to improve HIV prevention services for these hard-to-reach communities at high risk of infection.

NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said the magnitude of the AIDS crisis can't be underestimated and called for research professionals to do all they can to "understand and overcome the obstacles to HIV prevention and care in the black community" in honor of the 11th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

NIAID and the D.C. Department of Health are also teaming to lead the D.C. Partnership for AIDS Progress, a program aimed at combatting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the nation’s capitol, a majority-black city with one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the nation.

According to the Washington Post, at least three percent of D.C. residents have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around half of the more than 1 million people living in the United States with HIV are African-American.