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.