Leaders of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) today called on congressional leaders to hold emergency meetings to develop a strategy to combat the implications of the findings by the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report that revealed new HIV infections are 40 percent higher than previous reports, with the majority of new infections centered in African-American/Black populations.
The new numbers are a 40% increase over previous CDC estimates. African-American communities – particularly men who have s*x with men, women, and youth – find themselves in a national state of public health emergency, in the richest country in the world, with no support from government in the form of a national AIDS strategy, or a needed series of legislative initiatives to address this tragedy.
“The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS is calling on all congressional leaders to hold an emergency Congressional hearing on the implications of the CDC report that is planned and implemented with the support and guidance of community leadership,” said Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church and NBLCA’s Chairman. “We also call on the Presidential candidates to request language in their respective party platforms calling for the development of a national AIDS strategy and make fighting this epidemic in Black America a high priority in the first 100 days of their administration. We call on the American people to support our work to help bring our communities together and find common solutions to this on-going American tragedy.”
C. Virginia Fields, NBLCA’s President/CEO, said President Bush’s focus on combating HIV/AIDS overseas has not been matched with a commitment to fighting the continuing epidemic here at home.
“This new CDC report comes against the backdrop of the US allocation of $50 billion in new emergency AIDS relief funding to the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). President Bush’s continued response to the global epidemic last week, does not include African-Americans here at home,” said Fields. “The Black AIDS Institute recently released a report that stated if Black America was its own country, we would rank 16th among all the PEPFAR nations currently eligible to receive this emergency funding, That’s simply unacceptable by anyone’s standards and is truly a national tragedy.”
Butts said the CDC’s new findings are merely catching up with the reality on the ground experienced throughout communities of color in America every day.
“For those in shock at the lack of response to our community’s new infections and rates of death in the richest country in the world, you need not look that far back in history,” said Butts. “Just turn the page back to the response to our needs after Hurricane Katrina.”
Butts served as co-convener of the historic National Conclave on HIV/AIDS Policy for Black Clergy held last October with Bishop T:D: Jakes of The Potter’s House of Dallas, Texas. The national conclave brought together more than 160 of the nation’s top black clergy, physicians, researchers and elected officials to develop a strategy that would mitigate the growing rate of new HIV infections and provide a greater level of care and treatment to those in need in the most devastated communities in our nation.
The conclave was sponsored by the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and cosponsored by the National Conference of Black Mayors, the National Caucus of Black State Legislators and the Congressional Black Caucus. The attendees developed a legislative initiative entitled the National HIV/AIDS Elimination Act, to be introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel, DNY., who participated in the conclave.
Even before the designation of HIV/AIDS as an epidemic 26 years ago, African-Americans had the highest rates of death from chronic illnesses, higher than all other minorities combined. The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, the oldest and largest Black AIDS organization of its kind in America, has been on the front lines of the AIDS battle fighting for new resources to communities of color and developing clergy-led community leadership coalitions on the ground so that they can respond to this crisis in their local communities.
“As Chair of the CBC Health Braintrust and a co-chair of the recently reconstituted HIV/AIDS Taskforce of the CBC, under the leadership of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, we have already begun to press for a hearing on the recent CDC report. But more than a hearing, we stand ready to implement the recommendations of the Conclave of which we are a part and of the Black AIDS Institute’s recent report. We are determined that the healthcare needs of African Americans will not be ignored. The CDC report gives us the ammunition and the work of NBLCA and the Black AIDS Institute give us the roadmap to turning these numbers around,” said Congresswoman Donna Christensen, (D-USVI), a participant in the Conclave.
Other congressmembers participating in the conclave included Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), and James Clyburn (D-SC).
The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS also lends its voice to the call for a national AIDS strategy and special support for the needs of women and men who have s*x with men, and support for our cities, states and territories as outlined in statements from the National Black Women’s HIV/AIDS Network, the Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition and the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Monday, August 11th 2008 at 8:32PM
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