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Volume 27, Issue 461 |
February 20, 2006 |
HIV EPIDEMIC HITS MINORITIES HARD
The 6th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (held Feb. 7th) marked the continuing crisis of the AIDS epidemic among African Americans.
The annual number of new HIV infections in the United States has slid from a peak of more than 150,000 in the mid-1980s, to stabilize at about 40,000 in the late 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But if the epidemic’s increase has stabilized overall, its toll on the African American community is growing.
According to the CDC:
- African Americans make up only 12.3 percent of the U.S. population, but since the beginning of the epidemic, they have accounted for 40 percent of AIDS cases;
- In 2004, black Americans accounted for 50 percent of the nearly 39,000 new HIV/AIDS diagnoses;
- In 2002 (the latest year for which data are available), HIV/AIDS was the No. 1 cause of death for African American women aged 25-34 years, and among the top three causes of death for black men the same age; and
- Of people who have been diagnosed with AIDS since 1996, a smaller proportion of black Americans (64 percent) were alive after nine years, compared with Asians and Pacific Islanders (81 percent), whites (74 percent), Hispanics (72 percent), and American Indians and Alaska Natives (65 percent).
President George W. Bush’s proposed FY 2007 budget would increase funds for domestic HIV/AIDS prevention by $93 million, to $740 million, chiefly in order to expand rapid HIV testing in low-income and minority communities.
Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, who chairs the board of the HIV Medicine Association, praised the proposal as “the first increase in HIV prevention in a number of years.” However, he said that even with the increase, not everyone who needs care will be able to get it. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 233,000 Americans already know they have HIV but do not receive antiretroviral therapy. As the new prevention programs identify more people as HIV-positive, providers will be called upon to dispense more care, but the funds are unlikely to be there, Kuritzkes said.
Meanwhile, as of Jan. 18, 954 individuals were on waiting lists in 10 states for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), according to the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors. Incorporated into the Ryan White CARE Act, ADAPs provide HIV-related prescription drugs to people with HIV/AIDS who have limited or no prescription drug coverage.
Congress allocates funds to states for their ADAP programs, and some states supplement those funds with general revenues. The National Alliance says that in FY 2006, federal ADAP funding will increase by $2 million: “by far the smallest increase in the program’s history and much less than what will be required to meet anticipated needs.”
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