HIV rate doubles for blacks
The Substance
HIV data
Comparison of U.S. HIV data compiled over a decade shows:
• The prevalence of AIDS among blacks increased to 2 percent from 1 percent.
• The rate among whites held steady at 0.2 percent.
• In 2003, 56 percent of 480,000 HIV-infected people ages 15 to 49 were receiving antiviral medications.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research comparing 1988-1994 data with 1999-2002 data.
HIV rate doubles for blacks
Infection among whites held steady over decade
By Jeff Donn
Associated Press
Star writer Shari Rudavsky contributed to this story.
February 26, 2005
BOSTON -- The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites -- stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday.
Other troubling statistics indicate that almost half of all infected people in the United States who should be receiving HIV drugs are not getting them.
The findings were released in Boston at the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference, the world's chief scientific gathering on the disease.
"It's incredibly disappointing," said Terje Anderson, director of the National Association of People With AIDS. "We just have a burgeoning epidemic in the African-American community that is not being dealt with effectively."
Researchers and AIDS prevention advocates attributed the high rate among blacks to such factors as drug addiction, poverty and poor access to health care.
"Poverty has become a risk factor for HIV [here] just as it is in the developing nations," said Tracy Elliott, executive director of Indianapolis' Damien Center, an HIV/AIDS service organization, where nearly 40 percent of clients are minorities. "It used to be that AIDS impoverished you. You lost your job, you lost your insurance, maybe your family didn't support you."
The HIV rates were derived from the widely used National Health and Nutrition Examinations Surveys, which analyze a representative sample of U.S. households and contain the most complete HIV data in the country. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared 1988-1994 data with figures from 1999-2002.
The surveys look only at young and middle-aged adults who live in households, excluding such groups as soldiers, prisoners and homeless. Thus, health officials think the numbers probably underestimate true HIV rates in this country.
Still, they show a striking rise in the prevalence of the AIDS virus from 1 percent to 2 percent of blacks. White rates held steady at 0.2 percent. Largely because of the increase among blacks, the overall U.S. rate rose from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent.
Smaller studies had shown rising infection rates among blacks in recent years, but this study takes a longer and more complete look at changes in the general population.
In Indianapolis, groups like the Ebenezer Church Foundation Bridging the Gap Project and the Stamp Out Syphilis Coalition are working to get the word out about African-Americans and AIDS, trying to reach people in barber shops, bars and churches.
Much attention has focused on the problem of AIDS in Africa; it's time now to turn the spotlight onto what's going on right here, said Kimberly Wells, community educational outreach developer with Bridging the Gap.
"We wish that more clergy would pay attention and talk to their congregants about HIV and AIDS," she said. "We have to step up and take responsibility for our own actions and our own health."
Although HIV/AIDS has had a disproportionate impact among African-Americans in Indiana in recent years, that trend appears to leveling off now, said Michael Butler, director of the HIV/STD Division of the Indiana State Department of Health.
Because HIV/AIDS patterns in larger cities usually take five to seven years to reach Indiana, Butler said he did not expect the leveling trend to reverse in the future. The lead time allows targeted public education campaigns to take root.
"We're ahead of the curve by the time those changes hit us here so we don't expect to see any significant jump in infection rates among African Americans," he said.
The lead CDC researcher, Geraldine McQuillan, said she was encouraged to see the HIV rate among younger blacks holding steady at just under 1.5 percent.
"It tells me we're making some headway," she said.
Other national data and published reports studied by the CDC showed that 480,000 HIV-infected people ages 15 to 49 should have been getting antiviral drugs in 2003, yet only 268,000, or 56 percent, were given such medication.
Researcher Eyasu Teshale of the CDC said the gap represents "a substantial unmet health care need."
Treatment is widely viewed as a central component in prevention. Powerful AIDS drugs that came into wide use in the mid-1990s can knock down levels of the virus in the body, reducing the chances that the patient will infect others.
Nearly 1 million people in the United States have contracted the AIDS virus since the outbreak began in the early 1980s. About 40,000 people test positive each year, and more than 18,000 die. U.S. infections have remained fairly level in recent years with the use of powerful HIV drugs.
The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites -- stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday.
Other troubling statistics indicate that almost half of all infected people in the United States who should be receiving HIV drugs are not getting them.Researchers and AIDS prevention advocates attributed the high rate among blacks to such factors as drug addiction, poverty and poor access to health care.
"Poverty has become a risk factor for HIV [here] just as it is in the developing nations," said Tracy Elliott, executive director of Indianapolis' Damien Center, an HIV/AIDS service organization, where nearly 40 percent of clients are minorities. "It used to be that AIDS impoverished you. You lost your job, you lost your insurance, maybe your family didn't support you."
Nearly 1 million people in the United States have contracted the AIDS virus since the outbreak began in the early 1980s. About 40,000 people test positive each year, and more than 18,000 die.
HIV data
Comparison of U.S. HIV data compiled over a decade shows:
• The prevalence of AIDS among blacks increased to 2 percent from 1 percent.
• The rate among whites held steady at 0.2 percent.
• In 2003, 56 percent of 480,000 HIV-infected people ages 15 to 49 were receiving antiviral medications.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research comparing 1988-1994 data with 1999-2002 data.
HIV rate doubles for blacks
Infection among whites held steady over decade
By Jeff Donn
Associated Press
Star writer Shari Rudavsky contributed to this story.
February 26, 2005
BOSTON -- The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites -- stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday.
Other troubling statistics indicate that almost half of all infected people in the United States who should be receiving HIV drugs are not getting them.
The findings were released in Boston at the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference, the world's chief scientific gathering on the disease.
"It's incredibly disappointing," said Terje Anderson, director of the National Association of People With AIDS. "We just have a burgeoning epidemic in the African-American community that is not being dealt with effectively."
Researchers and AIDS prevention advocates attributed the high rate among blacks to such factors as drug addiction, poverty and poor access to health care.
"Poverty has become a risk factor for HIV [here] just as it is in the developing nations," said Tracy Elliott, executive director of Indianapolis' Damien Center, an HIV/AIDS service organization, where nearly 40 percent of clients are minorities. "It used to be that AIDS impoverished you. You lost your job, you lost your insurance, maybe your family didn't support you."
The HIV rates were derived from the widely used National Health and Nutrition Examinations Surveys, which analyze a representative sample of U.S. households and contain the most complete HIV data in the country. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared 1988-1994 data with figures from 1999-2002.
The surveys look only at young and middle-aged adults who live in households, excluding such groups as soldiers, prisoners and homeless. Thus, health officials think the numbers probably underestimate true HIV rates in this country.
Still, they show a striking rise in the prevalence of the AIDS virus from 1 percent to 2 percent of blacks. White rates held steady at 0.2 percent. Largely because of the increase among blacks, the overall U.S. rate rose from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent.
Smaller studies had shown rising infection rates among blacks in recent years, but this study takes a longer and more complete look at changes in the general population.
In Indianapolis, groups like the Ebenezer Church Foundation Bridging the Gap Project and the Stamp Out Syphilis Coalition are working to get the word out about African-Americans and AIDS, trying to reach people in barber shops, bars and churches.
Much attention has focused on the problem of AIDS in Africa; it's time now to turn the spotlight onto what's going on right here, said Kimberly Wells, community educational outreach developer with Bridging the Gap.
"We wish that more clergy would pay attention and talk to their congregants about HIV and AIDS," she said. "We have to step up and take responsibility for our own actions and our own health."
Although HIV/AIDS has had a disproportionate impact among African-Americans in Indiana in recent years, that trend appears to leveling off now, said Michael Butler, director of the HIV/STD Division of the Indiana State Department of Health.
Because HIV/AIDS patterns in larger cities usually take five to seven years to reach Indiana, Butler said he did not expect the leveling trend to reverse in the future. The lead time allows targeted public education campaigns to take root.
"We're ahead of the curve by the time those changes hit us here so we don't expect to see any significant jump in infection rates among African Americans," he said.
The lead CDC researcher, Geraldine McQuillan, said she was encouraged to see the HIV rate among younger blacks holding steady at just under 1.5 percent.
"It tells me we're making some headway," she said.
Other national data and published reports studied by the CDC showed that 480,000 HIV-infected people ages 15 to 49 should have been getting antiviral drugs in 2003, yet only 268,000, or 56 percent, were given such medication.
Researcher Eyasu Teshale of the CDC said the gap represents "a substantial unmet health care need."
Treatment is widely viewed as a central component in prevention. Powerful AIDS drugs that came into wide use in the mid-1990s can knock down levels of the virus in the body, reducing the chances that the patient will infect others.
Nearly 1 million people in the United States have contracted the AIDS virus since the outbreak began in the early 1980s. About 40,000 people test positive each year, and more than 18,000 die. U.S. infections have remained fairly level in recent years with the use of powerful HIV drugs.
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