African American Community

African American young men are infected with HIV at an alarmingly high rate in comparison to other races. The negative stigmas that is attached to having HIV in the black community, especially for men can be extremely detrimental and harmful to their overall health. One stigma that was attached to having HIV was death, death was at one time believed to be imminent, and now HIV is about restructuring their lives to face the future (Buseh, Kelber, Stevens & Park, 2008, p.409), yet they still battle other stigmas surrounded around HIV.

One’s community plays a huge role in their health behaviors. The African-American community must provide better opportunities and options for the homosexual men within their communities. Wishfully thinking, there should be a leader from every community that will be in charge of improving HIV/AIDS within their own neighborhoods/communities. Having someone with a personal connection to the community is a great asset because they know exactly what is going on and what will work and what will not.

Although HIV/AIDS affect people worldwide some areas of the United States are more drastically affected by it. The United States is the third country with the largest population having HIV/AIDS. In the U.S. alone there is more than one million individuals living with this disease. However HIV/AIDS is more prominent in the southern half of the United States, but more specifically in urban areas where people of color are more prone to live in. HIV/AIDS affects people of color living in these areas differently do to social, economic, and demographic factors such as stigma, discrimination, income, education, and geographic region. All of these different factors dictate why there are only eleven states in the southern half of the United States

This article stated that in 2014 an estimated 44,073 people were diagnosed with HIV. The previous DrugFacts article said that the 2010 estimate was 47,000 people. This shows that there are fewer diagnoses in 2014, but comparing two years doesn’t prove much. Shortly after the 2014 statistic, the article stated “The number of new HIV diagnoses fell 19% from 2005 to 2014” and this answered my question of what were the current HIV trends. This statement is reinforced by the fact that HIV testing has been on the rise in recent years. Diagnoses among homosexuals, heterosexuals, and inject drug users are on the decline, but some subgroups are not see this decrease in diagnoses. Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men have had an increase in diagnoses by 24% between 2005 and 2014. African American gay and bisexual men have also had an increase in diagnoses between 2005 and 2014 although it has been plateauing in the last 5

A community is defined as groups of individuals who enjoy interacting or living within the same space.

Within heterosexist and homophobic societal contexts, HIV/AIDS is frequently misrepresented as a disease of gay men. While in the U.S.A. men who have sex with men are overrepresented in the population of people who has HIV/AIDS, labeling, the illness as a “gay” one dismisses the reality that HIV transmission globally is uniquely associated with one particular group: human beings (of all sexual orientations.) The fact that g,ay men form the single largest group of people with HIV/AIDS in America fails to take into account the various societal and cultural factors which contribute, to this occurrence. Societal discrimination against gay men can have direct effects on individuals, impacting self-esteem and leading some men to engage in behaviors

HIV/AIDS has affected individuals from various walks of life all over the country but over the past decade this disease his greatly impacted the southern region of the United States. Over the years studies have been conducted to determine the contributing factors for this increase of HIV/AIDS rates in the South. Research findings have produced similar conclusions such as high rates of poverty, lack of education, and social stigma as contributing factors to the increased HIV/AIDS incidences in the South. The findings also have concluded that African Americans are the largest ethnic group greatly affected as being

HIV is not a new disease that everyone is talking about these days. This disease each year produces approximately 50,000 new infections and of these new infections, gay males and the black population are the two categories that produce the highest rate of infections. Overall, since the beginning of the epidemic decades ago, over 300,000 gay males have gone from HIV to AIDS and eventually have died from this disease (“HIV in the United States: At A Glance,” 2014). With this information showing the number of infections and deaths, it is without a doubt that there is a stigma that exists for HIV diagnoses by sexual orientation and race.

Since the beginning of time, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been plaguing African American communities at an alarmingly higher rate than any other. The initial stereotype was that only homosexual, Caucasian men had this disease (which also helped contribute to the disease even further because blacks did not think that they had the possibility of contracting HIV). Poverty plays a huge role as well because those are the blacks most affected and since they are financially unable to afford proper, necessary treatment, they fall victim to this disease. Even though they may seem or look fine at one point in time, the virus can clearly take over their body once their CD4 cell count diminishes to less than 200 cells. This weakens the immune system and opportunistic infections now have the chance to invade the body and eventually kill the HIV (now AIDS) infected individual.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been a major public health issue in the African-American community of the United States since the 1980s (Shisana et al., 2014). The documentary “ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America” shows the widespread nature of HIV in the black community. According to Renata Simone, producer of the documentary, “African Americans make up about 12 percent of the nation’s population, but account for almost half of all people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.” The documentary features personal stories and interviews with those who are infected with HIV. Simone attributed the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community to unprotected sexual activity, drugs, tainted blood transfusions, prostitution, and the stigma surrounding the disease.

One of the driving factors contributing to the amount of stigmatization and discrimination people with HIV face is the fact that the virus was initially predominately found in already marginalized groups of people. Such as intravenous drug users, people of African decent, as well as gay men. “HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination are now widely acknowledged as key obstacles to successful care and prevention throughout the world particularly amongst more disadvantaged and marginalized groups.” (Nwanna 2005) Due this people with HIV/AIDS will more or less face double the stigma and discrimination, think of it in terms of “guilty by association” Today even though it’s been proven that HIV does not discriminate and that anyone can catch it, this idea that only specific “risk groups” can catch it still continues to live on. This is a reason why people with HIV/AIDS are

African-American males are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS across the United States. According to the CDC (2016), African-Americans accounted for 40% of everyone living with HIV. This community, however, constitutes of 12% of the total population (Siddiqi, Hu, & Hall, 2015). Furthermore, 31% of this community has never been tested for HIV, increasing the likelihood of transmission (Siddiqi, Hu, & Hall, 2015). In 2015, out of 17,670 newly identified cases amongst African-Americans, more than half were men. In recent years, diagnoses of African-American men has continued to increase by nearly 25% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). The age group that is mostly affected by new cases are between 20 to 29 years old (Siddiqi, Hu, & Hall, 2015). Mortality rates are equally as high; 53% of deaths due to HIV are African-Americans (CDC, 2017). In 2012, Florida reported the highest mortality rate of African-Americans with HIV, while Idaho reported none (Siddiqi, Hu, & Hall, 2015). States with the highest rates of mortality include California, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. Moreover, death rates are alarmingly high amongst African-American men over the age of 55.

AIDS is a set of symptoms you get when you are in the last stage of Human Immunodeficiency Virus. An individual is assumed to have AIDS once their immune system is too weak to fight off the infection, which in return leads to death if left unattended. HIV and AIDS are not to be toyed with. In writing this essay, I discovered a lot of information that I did not know at once. As black people, we must be educated in our health, especially college students. Everyone thinks that “It can’t be me to get it.” while in actuality, anyone can get the virus. Like Myth Two of “Tools for Fighting the AIDS Pandemic” by Alexander Irwin, Joyce Millen and Dorothy Fallows, removing promiscuous sex is not the only thing that will prevent you from attaining HIV.

Over the course of 25 years, HIV/AIDS has reached pandemic proportions, marginalized specific groups and populations, challenged public

Additionally, we learned how stigmatization impacts the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the DC area and how one’s education level can also influence one’s chance of becoming infected. Though, it has been the common misconception that only the low-income and uneducated are at risk of infection, we learned from Mr. Weston that people with moderate income and college degrees, may also put themselves in risky situations. For instance, Mr. Weston gave us the