Miami Herald - July 16, 2001
Tere Figueras, tfigueras@herald.com

The goal: to rally all segments of the community -- from government to churches to schools -- and to draft a common plan to halt the spread of the disease.

"It's time we came together as a community to develop a strategy to attack this devastating epidemic," Meek, D-Miami, told a crowd of about three dozen activists and health officials at Jackson Memorial Hospital. "We need to show the world that Miami-Dade County can take care of its problems."

Meek, flanked by clergymen and community advocates, said the upcoming summit is a necessary step to escalate the local war against the disease.

The summit takes place July 28 at the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami. The reason for the event is growing concern about unabated rates of cases in Miami-Dade, especially those involving minorities.

According to statistics from the Miami-Dade County Health Department, distributed at Sunday's meeting, 86 percent of the county's HIV cases involve blacks and Hispanics. Minorities make up 57 percent of all nationwide HIV cases, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Miami-Dade County Health Department figures show that blacks account for 57 percent of all HIV cases locally, Hispanics 29 percent.

Non-Hispanic whites account for 14 percent, the statistics show.

Other ethnicities make up less than 1 percent.

Meek, in a written statement, said that the South Florida area alone has more HIV/AIDS cases than the total in each of 44 states. The study released this year by the CDC in Atlanta, published to mark the 20th anniversary of the epidemic, found that more than half the estimated 40,000 new U.S. HIV infections each year occur among blacks, who make up only about 12 percent of the population.

Hispanics, who also constitute about 12 percent of the population, account for 19 percent of new infections nationwide, the study said. Part of the strategy for fighting the disease locally would be to make AIDS and HIV part of the collective consciousness, said state Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. The topic, she said, should be as pervasive as other well-worn issues.

"People talk about O.J., then they can talk about AIDS. If they talk about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, then talk about AIDS. They talk about Eli n, then talk about AIDS," said Wilson, greeted by a chorus of "Amens" from the audience.

"In the beauty parlors and barber shops, everywhere we go, we need to talk about AIDS," she said.

One by one, speakers highlighted the areas where efforts need to be increased: schools, jails, parts of deep South Dade and low-income areas.

"We need to take this to the streets, where the virus is being spread," said the Rev. George McRae, pastor of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church and founder of Minorities Overcoming the Virus through Education, Responsibility and Spirituality, or MOVERS.

But taboos about sexuality often stymie efforts to combat the disease, McRae said.

Congregations need to provide a more welcome -- and pro-active -- approach to dealing with their flocks, he said.

Studies place South Florida at the top of urban areas in the United States with high HIV/AIDS infection rates, said Sen. Bill Nelson. "We have among us a terrorist that stalks us on a 24-hour basis, one that murders and rapes," said Nelson, who is planning a trip to AIDS-ravaged Africa. "We'd better act."

Whatever the outcome of the summit, action is needed, said Petra Johnson-Hobson, a young black woman living with the virus.

"We need a strategic plan, not just lip service," said Johnson-Hobson, a member of Florida AIDS Action, citing long waiting lists for government programs and a shortage of resources for those already infected. "More and more people who look like me are dying."

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