Spreading Epidemic: AIDS Rate Rising for Blacks, Women

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Spreading Epidemic: AIDS Rate Rising for Blacks, Women

Detroit News (12/28/97)
Tobin, James

Abstract: The truth about Detroit's HIV/AIDS epidemic now, is that infection rates are higher among African Americans in both sexes rather than among whites. In fact, Michigan state officials report that as many as one in 100 African-American men in southeast Michigan may be HIV-infected, compared to just one in 600 white men. Furthermore, one in 300 African- American women may be infected with the virus that causes AIDS, compared to one in 4,500 white women. Despite the skewed statistics, health officials say the virus is not a racial issue but one of problem behaviors. Still, they acknowledge certain facts about how the epidemic has spread among both races: a predominantly white public-health system was slow in discovering new approaches to AIDS prevention in the African- American community, early indifference to HIV in the African- American community due to "problem overload," according to Harry Simpson, head of Community Health Awareness Group, and the fact that African-American religious leaders veered from discussion of HIV because it raises such taboo issues as homosexuality and intravenous drug use.

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