The Associated Press - Tuesday, October 22, 1996.
Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press Writer

Galvanized by statistics indicating that blacks will account for more than half of new AIDS cases by 2000, black leaders convened an emergency summit to plot prevention strategies.

Conference organizer Mario Cooper noted that the number of AIDS cases among blacks and whites were, for the first time, equal in 1995. Both amounted to 40 percent of newly reported cases, while Hispanics accounted for 19 percent and Asians and American Indians made up the rest.

The statistics from the Centers for Disease Control show that last year, there were 93 cases of AIDS reported for every 100,000 blacks, compared to 15 cases for every 100,000 whites.

Experts Tuesday said the solution is more complex than simply telling minorities how the disease is contracted: through sex or sharing of needles among drug users. They said blacks must embrace the cause of AIDS prevention the way gays did a decade ago.

"Part of (the problem) is denial that has been characteristic of almost every community affected by AIDS," said Dr. Mark Smith, executive vice president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which helped fund the summit at the Harvard AIDS Institute.

"The reality of it is, I think people understand how the disease is spread," said Cooper, former chairman of the AIDS Action Council, a Washington-based policy group. But he said limited access to health care has slowed progress in halting the disease.

Conference participants asked that groups like the NAACP and Urban League, as well as schools and the media get involved in AIDS education. They also urged communities to seek out federal funding.

"In terms of prevention and education, the vast majority of funds and efforts have not gone to the communities that are now impacted by the disease," Cooper said. "Traditionally, gay male clinics and service organizations have driven the way the money is appropriated."

According to CDC, 70 percent of white men who contracted AIDS from July 1995 through June 1996, were infected through homosexual sex, while 11 percent of cases were blamed on intravenous drug use.

Among black men, the percentage of cases blamed on sex and drug use were equal -- 33 percent.

Among white women during the same period, 39 percent of new cases were attributed to drug use, and 41 percent to heterosexual contact. Among black women, 36 percent of cases were attributed to drugs and 37 percent to heterosexual sex.

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