Concern on AIDS Growing
Recent news about the impact of AIDS on the Black community has painted a picture as bad as anyone imagined it. Those who follow the issue have been reeling, and the mood spilled over to anger last weekend at the 2008 U.S. Conference on AIDS, which ended Sept. 21.
The bad news began in August with two reports. One, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 56,300 new HIV infections occurred annually -- not the 40,000 previously estimated. And African-Americans are by far the worst-affected. The CDC estimated that African-Americans, though only 13% of the nation’s total population, accounted for an estimated 45% of all new HIV infections in 2006.
Also last month, the Black AIDS Institute reported that, if Black America, were a separate country, it would have higher AIDS infection rates than many of the foreign countries that the U.S. government targets for financial help. Yet the government's resonse to the AIDS crisis here in the U.S. is woefully inadequate, the report asserted.
Last week, CDC officials testified before Congress that they need $4.8 billion more over the next five years to effectively fight AIDS. Lack of funding for AIDS programs has been a consistent complaint in recent years.
It was a familiar lament of the thousands of attendees last weekend to the annual U.S. Conference on AIDS, which was held in Ft. Lauderdale Sept. 17-21. What was different in this conference, though, was that it came amid talk of trillion-dollar bailouts of wealthy Wall Street investment banks.
The contrast prompted C. Virginia Fields, President and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, to urge citizens to step up and demand resources for AIDS.
“I was a teenager during those demonstrations in Birmingham in 1963,” said Fields, a graduate of HBCU Knoxville College. “We know what happened after that. When we look at every social movement, progress comes because of action, not passivity.
“I urge Americans to call, write or email their legislators at every level – local, state and national – to let them know that this is killing more people than any other problem that they deal with.”
Fields and other Black leaders are encouraged by indications that average Americans are starting to realize that AIDS is a public health emergency that must be addressed immediately. New York residents held a protest in Brooklyn last week, and another protest is planned for the first presidential debate on Friday. Elected officials are taking notice, too. Last week, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee introduced a resolution calling for a National AIDS Strategy. This is something NBLCA has been advocating forcefully for several months.
"The fact that there is finally some movement on it lends a glimmer of hope to our work here at the U.S. AIDS Conference," said Fields. "But it also shows that the work is just beginning."
The bad news began in August with two reports. One, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 56,300 new HIV infections occurred annually -- not the 40,000 previously estimated. And African-Americans are by far the worst-affected. The CDC estimated that African-Americans, though only 13% of the nation’s total population, accounted for an estimated 45% of all new HIV infections in 2006.
Also last month, the Black AIDS Institute reported that, if Black America, were a separate country, it would have higher AIDS infection rates than many of the foreign countries that the U.S. government targets for financial help. Yet the government's resonse to the AIDS crisis here in the U.S. is woefully inadequate, the report asserted.
Last week, CDC officials testified before Congress that they need $4.8 billion more over the next five years to effectively fight AIDS. Lack of funding for AIDS programs has been a consistent complaint in recent years.
It was a familiar lament of the thousands of attendees last weekend to the annual U.S. Conference on AIDS, which was held in Ft. Lauderdale Sept. 17-21. What was different in this conference, though, was that it came amid talk of trillion-dollar bailouts of wealthy Wall Street investment banks.
The contrast prompted C. Virginia Fields, President and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, to urge citizens to step up and demand resources for AIDS.
“I was a teenager during those demonstrations in Birmingham in 1963,” said Fields, a graduate of HBCU Knoxville College. “We know what happened after that. When we look at every social movement, progress comes because of action, not passivity.
“I urge Americans to call, write or email their legislators at every level – local, state and national – to let them know that this is killing more people than any other problem that they deal with.”
Fields and other Black leaders are encouraged by indications that average Americans are starting to realize that AIDS is a public health emergency that must be addressed immediately. New York residents held a protest in Brooklyn last week, and another protest is planned for the first presidential debate on Friday. Elected officials are taking notice, too. Last week, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee introduced a resolution calling for a National AIDS Strategy. This is something NBLCA has been advocating forcefully for several months.
"The fact that there is finally some movement on it lends a glimmer of hope to our work here at the U.S. AIDS Conference," said Fields. "But it also shows that the work is just beginning."
