Black Male Youths: Intervention Study

This journal evaluates the epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases disparities of African-American in the united states in comparison to white communities. This study focuses on disparities for African American because of the massive diseases of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis that the African American communities face. Most of the US population is either white or African American. This journal focuses on African American communities instead of African Americans because of the many diversities in the US African American population. Studies took from the Northeast, South, West and Midwest

SLIDE 1: So why are we targeting low-income black and Hispanic adolescent females you may ask? They are at higher risk, than other ethnicities, for acquiring an STD and/or experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Increased utilization of dual contraception is of great importance in these communities. Adolescent females in general are less likely to use dual forms of protection from STD’s and unplanned pregnancy. Young women, due to their anatomy tend to be more susceptible to STD’s than are young men. Black and Hispanic females are 4.9x and 2.1x, respectively, more likely to contract chlamydia (which is a common STD) than their white counterparts. When it comes to pregnancy 3 in 10 adolescent females will become pregnant before the age of 20, amongst black and Hispanic young women this figure jumps to 5 in 10. Black and Hispanics teens are more likely to be living in poverty than are other ethnicities and data has shown that teen pregnancy increases proportionally as socioeconomic status declines as does rate of STD contraction.

The prevalence of HIV in the African American community is unmatched by any other population. African Americans accounted for 49% of all HIV related deaths in 2010 (CDC, 2014). In my specialty area of family practice, I have encountered only one non-minority patient with HIV; all others have been African-American. This population needs to be of high consideration for disease education. African Americans are typically unaware of resources available to prevent the transmission of this disease, as well as testing available to them in their communities. African American children, especially, are at greater risk for HIV due to lack of knowledge and earlier age of engaging in sexual intercourse. They are typically unaware that their behavior can yield such a negative outcome (CDC, 2012). Many urban schools lack proper funding to accommodate a sexual education curriculum. It is of increased importance to raise awareness, educate and provide a plan of care for the African American teenage and adult population, as the incidence of this disease rises daily.

Although, (NIH, 2007) reports that condoms have reduce HIV Transmission by 87-95 percent. To get these African American male students from seeing it to exploring condom use as an option or a benefit is contemplation. However, a Condom Education Program is placed an inner city high school, whose population is 65 percent Afro-American male. NIH reported data is the goal of the program. The objective is by the end of the year, 45% of Afro American sexual active males are

Balaji, A. B., Oster, A. M., Viall, A. H., Heffelfinger, J. D., Mena, L. A., & Toledo, C. A. (2012). Role flexing: How community, religion, and family shape the experiences of young black men who have sex with men. AIDS Patient Care and STDs, 26(12), 73-737.

Despite the awareness that has brought attention to HIV testing, and medicinal advancements that have made decreasing the rate of transmission possible, over 50,000 new HIV infections are diagnosed every year in the United States2. Of these infections, 63% of new diagnoses are men that have sex with men (MSM), and 66% are African American2. This makes African American MSM’s the group with the highest number of new infections, and therefore the group at highest risk. Yet, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has brought a new weapon to the table when it comes to the war on HIV. Now, with PrEP, high risk individuals have an option to further protect themselves, although safe sex, with a condom, is still very important. PrEP does not cover other STI’s, which increases the importance of latex condom use.

Maya A. Corneille, Raymond H. Tademy, Mitchelle C. Reid, Faye Z. Belgrave and Aashir Nasim were the authors of the article. They obtained admirable educational backgrounds, and withhold outstanding credentials. In addition, A. Nasim, M. Corneille, and F. Belgrave have their Ph.D. which determines their experienced backgrounds, which includes them writing over 28 articles. R.H Tademy and M.C Reid are much less experience in result of 9 other published article. When I reviewed the authors, I realized that they share a common interest of study; which is implementing health promotion among African American adolescents and young adults. Their commitment to organizing the development of HIV prevention programs and sexual safety motives among young adults exemplified compassion and care. I also noticed that the authors remain active throughout the community by serving as a member of many organizations and agencies that has helped raise funds for health promotion.

How does unsafe sex affects affect one's life? How would you feel if your partner had AIDS/HIV and did not tell you? These are the questions that are asked everyday to people that are having unprotected sexual intercourse. Unprotected sex is the term used to describe sex that is used without a condom. STIs (sexually transmitted infections) can be passed when unprotected intercourse happens. However STIs could be transferred through oral sex as well. Using condoms such as Magnums, Trojans, Trustsex, Pleasure Plus, Crown, and RIA can help the HIV population decrease.The concept of risk has become central to the whole issue of young people and sexual behaviour in at least two senses. First, for those working with young people unsafe sex is identified

Only 43% of sexually active female teenagers received counseling or testing for STIs within the last year (purple). Marginalized teens (LGBTQIA, homeless, teens of color, teens in foster care) are the most likely candidates for HIV/AIDS infections (pink).

CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) is an innovative wellspring of support for HIV, STD, and pregnancy avoidance endeavors in the country's schools. DASH gives subsidizing and specialized help that empowers state and nearby training organizations to convey HIV and STD anticipation programs that are experimentally solid and grounded in the most recent research on viability. DASH concentrates on approaches to make protected and strong conditions so that all youngsters have the chance to learn and be healthy.

From the results we can firstly see that majority of individuals within our sample did practice safe sex and used a condom when engaging in sexual intercourse with 78% of respondents confirming the use of condoms by either themselves or their partners. This is indicative of the fact that young people are considering STIs, especially HIV when making choices regarding contraception. They are also concerned with preventing unwanted pregnancies and the complications associated with the above mentioned consequences of unprotected sex. The individuals who did not use condoms could likely be doing so as a result of wanting to have a child or also being with a stable partner which ensures security.

According to the Center for Young Women’s Health 25 percent of Americans between ages 15 and 55 will catch at least one STI. It is believed that STIs are more significant among teens and young adults, more than half of STI cases are caught by people under the age of 25. Young people are more likely to take more risks and have sex with more partners (“Sexually Transmitted Infections”, 2015). These numbers are high and without a solution being implemented has the potential to get a lot worse. STI’s or Sexually Transmitted Infections can be Gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, Herpes, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Scabies, and Syphilis to name a few. In recent years the HIV/AIDS rates on Historically Black Collegiate Universities have been on a rapid increase because it runs so ramped throughout the African American community. The United States National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health state in their journal that during the years of 2001 to 2005, African Americans accounted for the largest percentage of new cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in all age categories, especially among people aged 13 to 24 years (Public Health Rep, 2008).

The most recent evidence concludes young men who have sex with men (YMSM) “aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 92% of new HIV diagnoses among all men in their age group and 27% of new diagnoses among all gay and bisexual men” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, para. 3). Thus, suggests intervention for the YMSM population is vital to reversing this negative trend. Early recognition of this trend caught the attention of Dr. Kegeles and Dr. Hays from the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, at the University of California, San Francisco. Together they developed an “HIV prevention methodology that reformed the social environment of people at risk for HIV/AIDS, as well as focused on individual and interpersonal-level issues

According to Mothiba (2012: 14) studies have shown that what encourages teen to use condom more often and more consistently is the condom availability programmes (Guttmacher,1997).

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) now referred to as sexual transmitted infections (STI) because some people can be infected and infecting others but never show signs of the disease. Of the estimated 12 million new cases of STD/STIs, women are diagnosed with two-thirds of those cases each year in America. Contrary to popular belief, oftentimes, women are exposed to STD/STIs after just one contact with an infected partner. STD/STIs are of particular anguish among women because of the severe and life-threatening difficulties during pregnancy (Ford & Shimers – Bowers, 2009). STIs have become a significant public health problem, especially among minorities. STIs are highly prevalent among African American and Hispanic women