Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - The Voice of the West, 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94119 - Tuesday, August 19, 1997 - Page A18
Although blacks make up only 12 percent of the population, they account for 41 percent of Americans with AIDS. The forecast that black infections will exceed 50 percent in the year 2000 is good reason to sound the alarm throughout society, but especially in African American communities where the devastation is disastrous and getting worse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 120,000 blacks have died of AIDS and as many as 325,000 are living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
The CDC says HIV infections are six times higher among blacks than whites, and that between 1990 and 1994 AIDS infections grew 68 percent among blacks.
During the same period AIDS doubled among black women. It is spreading fastest among heterosexual black women, mainly those whose sexual partners are IV drug users or bisexuals. Chronicle staff writer Aurelio Rojas reported last week that AIDS is the most formidable killer of African Americans between ages 25 and 44.
By any standard the black community is in the midst of an AIDS crisis that shows no sign of easing. With that as background, a town hall meeting at San Francisco's Bayview Opera House on "The Changing Face of AIDS," Saturday -- sponsored by the Black Coalition on AIDS and the Bay Area Black Journalists Association -- was a welcome start for a more aggressive approach to the disease among African Americans.
"Within the African American culture there is a code of silence around this issue," says Duane Poe, executive director of the coalition. "It's time for all the stakeholders -- and that's everybody -- to come to the table to be educated about the issue and take action and responsibility."
Politicians, churches, social groups, families and friends must join in frank discussions on how to avoid AIDS.
Science may someday find a cure for AIDS or a vaccine to prevent it, but until then education and personal responsibility are the best weapons against the disease.
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