New Findings About HIV And The African American Community. The death rate among Blacks living with HIV is declining in the U.S. This is Good news! Being diagnosed with HIV isn’t an automatic death sentence. There was a time when people affected by the disease felt like that was the case. Today people are living healthy and longer than what Doctors predict. “In addition to enabling people living with HIV to live longer and healthier lives, we now know that effective treatment can also greatly reduce the chances of passing the virus to others. This means that providing medical care and treatment could do more than anything else to both protect the health of people living with HIV and prevent new infections.” There is still room for a lot of improvement. Blacks still have the highest death rate, more than any other racial or ethnic group, according to a statement released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
More information after the jump.
Blacks continue to account for more than half of new HIV diagnoses, according to the data collected between 2008 and 2012 and published this week in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, according to The Verge. The numbers show that 48 percent of people with HIV who died in 2012 were Black. And more than 8,100 Blacks with HIV died, compared with 5,400 deaths among Whites, and 2,500 deaths among Hispanics and Latinos, the report says. Even though African Americans represent only 12 percent of the population, more than a third of people living with HIV in the United States are Black, the CDC says. And new infections among young, gay Black men are increasing at an alarming rate.
Today February 7th marks the 16th annual observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day! Protect Yourself and Others around you Get tested
