San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 3, 1998
Laura Hamburg, Chronicle Staff Writer

Mirroring a national trend, African Americans are five times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than whites, even though they make up one fifth of the county's population, according to the Alameda Public Health Department.

"We have a full-blown epidemic that needs to be addressed immediately," said Dr. Arthur Chen, the county's health officer. "There is no question AIDS has had a dramatically disproportionate effect on African Americans."

If approved Thursday by county supervisors, the declaration would bolster the county's chances of scoring a portion of the $156 million in emergency federal funds set aside last week by President Clinton to address a national crisis of AIDS in African American communities.

A key committee of the supervisors approved the resolution yesterday and forwarded it to the full board.

Alameda County officials say the county should be awarded some of the federal money because the county has a disproportionate number of African Americans with AIDS compared with other counties.

AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African Americans ages 25-44, both in the county and in the nation.

Particularly hard hit have been African American women and children under the age of 12, according to a new report by aides to Representative Barbara Lee, D- Oakland, and Alameda County AIDS education agencies.

Included in the report's findings:

-- Last year, the AIDS case rate for blacks in the county was 61.9 per 100,000 population, compared to 12.4 per 100,000 for whites.

-- African Americans make up 18 percent of the county's population but comprise 41 percent of all AIDS cases since 1980.

-- Of the 1,854 people living with AIDS in Alameda County, African Americans represent 42.4 percent of male patients, and 63.3 percent of female patients.

-- African American youth account for 40 percent of the county's young people diagnosed with AIDS and 69 percent of the pediatric AIDS cases.

"It's to the point where I go to church and see African American grandmothers, children, gay males and heterosexual women all with HIV," said Ayanna Weathersby, an HIV services supervisor with AMASSI Inc., an African American AIDS support agency in Oakland. "There are a number of reasons the African American community in Alameda County has been devastated by AIDS."

African American churches and community leaders have failed to talk frankly about AIDS in the black community out of of a sense of shame and denial about homosexuality and drug use, public health advocates said.

Also for years, AIDS educational campaigns have focused on white, gay men, giving blacks the erroneous impression they were exempt from AIDS' deadly swath, said Roosevelt Mosby Jr., director of SMACC, an East Bay support group for gay and bisexual minority youth.

"As an African American gay man, I thought I'd be safe as long as I didn't have sex with white, gay men," Mosby said.

In addition, much of the federal AIDS prevention money has flowed to organizations with well- honed grant writing teams, the bulk of which support white, gay men, according to AIDS educators.

Last year, the federal government failed to renew more than $900,000 in grant money for East Bay AIDS support groups, many of which serve African American clients.

"That hurt us tremendously," said Gloria Jean Lockett, director of CAL-PEP, an Bay Area AIDS prevention project.

Declaring a state of emergency would put Alameda County on the federal radar and could help infuse agencies with outreach money.

"We have a lot of work to do before we see these numbers go down," said Weathersby, with AMASSI. "And hopefully that money coming down the pipeline can help us stop this epidemic before it gets worse."

BAY AREA AIDS CASES IN 1997

Alameda County public health officals say the disproportionate rate of AIDS cases among African Americans, especially compared with neighboring counties, has reached an epidemic level. They are calling for the Board of Supervisors to declare a public health emergency, which would allow the county to apply for federal emergency funds.

CHART:

San Francisco County

White: 64.3%

Latino: 13.7%

Other: 3.7%

African American: 18.3%

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Santa Clara County

White: 45.2%

African American: 17.1%

Other: 6.8%

Latino: 30.8%

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Alameda County

African American: 49.6%

Latino: 12.4%

Other: 6.4%

White: 31.6%

Source: Alameda County Public Health Dept.
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