Another myth buster is that ‘men on the down low’ alone are not spreading and solely infecting individuals.
By RHONDA CROWDER
Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON, D.C – AIDS 2012, XIX International AIDS Conference, the world’s largest medical conference, is well underway. It’s massive. It’s very informative and it’s even entertaining. But, most importantly, the Black press has been urged to sound the alarm within our community.
The first time on U.S. soil in 22 years, because of a ban preventing people living with HIV/AIDS to enter or travel through this country was recently lifted by President Barack Obama, Blacks are involved on every level from planning to speaking.
Phill Wilson, president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute (an AIDS 2012 partner), was among the opening plenary speakers with Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Dr. Sheila Dinotshe Tiou, director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for eastern and southern Africa.
Other scheduled notable speakers throughout the week include Philanthropist Bill Gates and Whoopi Goldberg. Despite being held in the nation’s capital, just a stone’s throw away from his home, President Barack Obama did not address the delegates. However, much discussion is surrounding his National Strategy to end HIV/AIDS, a first from the country since the onset.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Turning the Tide Together.” Those on the front lines of fighting HIV/AIDS believe we are at the beginning of the end of this pandemic as the scientific community has acquired enough research to begin the process of discovering a vaccine and a cure – although neither exist today.
“We are on scientifically solid ground when we say we can end the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” said Fauci. “The end of AIDS will not be accomplished without a major global commitment to make it happen. We have historic opportunity – with science on our side – to make the achievement of an AIDS-free generation a reality.”
Clinton, who first uttered the words “AIDS-free generation” a few years ago, defined the phrase as a time when no child will be born with the virus, children and teenagers will become adults with low risk of contraction and infected individuals will receive treatment to help prevent the development of AIDS and the transmission of the virus to others.
Globally, more than 34 million people are infected with HIV, including more than 1.1 million people in the United States.
Wilson, an openly gay Black male living with HIV for 32 years, in his speech to conference delegates said the U.S. epidemic is primarily a “concentrated epidemic” and in certain populations there are “generalized epidemics.”
“The AIDS epidemic in America is a Tale of Two Cities. It is the best of times and it is the worst of times. We have a system that can work very well for some of us. But, for many of us, the system is terribly broken.”
He explained that the problem lies within moving people from testing to being on antiretrovirals. “Between testing positive and going on antiretrovirals, we lose 54 percent of the people with HIV.”
But, during the Black AIDS Institute Black Journalist Training last Saturday, Wilson and other leaders of the Black AIDS Institute – the only national Black AIDS think tank – stress that this is the time for Blacks to come out of denial, kill the shame and build HIV/AIDS infrastructure to save our community.
To the group of 30 or more journalists, it was stated, “Elvis has left the building.” What was meant is that other populations – such as gay White males – have built the capacity to contain the spread of the disease in their communities while ignorance, fear, stereotypes and stigma continue to persist among us.
Simply put, we are the only group left in the United States who is affected by HIV/AIDS in large numbers.
We have a higher rate of prevalence than any other group.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black Americans accounted for 44 percent of the new infections in 2009 and 44 percent of people living with HIV yet only comprise 12 percent of the entire population. Blacks also accounted for 48 percent of new AIDS diagnosis in 2010.
Because we have higher rates of infection among our race and people tend to have sex with their own kind, we have greater chances of contracting the disease – even if we don’t fall into the high risk categories of being gay, woman, young, drug user or sex worker.
Those who abstain from having sex are the only ones safe from contracting HIV/AIDS. Others must take every precaution to protect themselves.
Much of the Black AIDS Institute’s Black Journalist Training was about arming reporters with information to begin dispelling the circulating myths. For example, many believe that HIV/AIDS started as a White, gay male disease when in fact Blacks have been infected and affected by the disease since the beginning.
Another myth buster is that ‘men on the down low’ alone are not spreading and solely infecting individuals.
So, all of the advancements in the world wouldn’t mean a hill of beans to us if we don’t begin to become proactive in eradicating this disease. The key messages given to take away from the conference have been: get tested, use condoms, explore biomedical intervention and become active in your community.
With that, Wilson urged everyone to seize this historical moment as the tide is turning in HIV/AIDS.
“This is what I know. The day will come when this epidemic will be over. And when it is, it’s important for them to know we were not all cowards. We were not all monsters. Some of us dared to care in the face of it. Some of us dared to fight because of it. Some of us dared to love in spite of it. Because, it is in the caring, fighting and loving that we live forever. This is our time. This is our deciding moment. Together we are greater than AIDS.”
