Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, February 24, 1999
Thaai Walker, Chronicle Staff Writer
It is a message that in the coming months will begin showing up throughout Oakland's neighborhoods -- on billboards, bench posters and flyers -- as part of an educational campaign to persuade more African Americans to get tested for HIV.
The campaign, sponsored in part by the Alameda County Public Health Department and paid for through a $300,000 state grant, is in response to stark statistics that show AIDS is increasingly becoming a disease of people of color.
Last November, Alameda County became the first county in the nation to declare that the HIV crisis in the black community constituted a public health state of emergency.
Reflecting a national trend, AIDS is hitting a larger share of the African American community than other groups. It has emerged as the leading cause of death nationwide for black men ages 25 to 44, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HIV infection rates are also increasing rapidly in the Latino community.
The problem, health advocates say, is that these groups do not realize that AIDS affects them.
"This is a fight for education, a fight against ignorance and a fight for our communities," Maurice Lee, a director with AIDS Project East Bay, said yesterday during a campaign kickoff in downtown Oakland.
The HIV testing campaign will focus on reaching the highest risk category among African Americans and Latinos -- intravenous drug users and men who are having sex with other men.
As part of the program, six Oakland community organizations that already deliver treatment, care and prevention services to minorities will offer free oral or blood testing.
Failure to get tested means many blacks are missing out on medical treatments that could save their lives, health advocates said.
"There are now drugs that are prolonging and saving lives," Susan Black, who coordinates HIV testing for the county, said. "This is truly a case of what you don't know will kill you -- untreated HIV will kill you, and it doesn't need to."
By not being tested, those infected with HIV are also endangering the lives of their sexual partners, in some cases, women who are unaware of the male partner's bisexual activities.
"There is a level of denial (about bisexuality) within the African American community and other communities of color that continues to be a significant barrier to seeing a decrease in the number of folks coming down with AIDS," said Earnest Hite, project coordinator and a county health provider.
Hite and others who try to educate the public about AIDS believe that many blacks fail to get tested because of a cultural misperception that AIDS is a gay white man's disease.
Others fail to realize the benefits of being tested because of a deeply rooted suspicion of government medical programs, inspired by incidents such as the Tuskegee experiment in which black men infected with syphilis were denied treatment even though penicillin was readily available.
In the next few months, billboards and posters encouraging HIV testing will start appearing in downtown Oakland, near BART stations and in East and West Oakland, where a majority of the city's blacks live.
For information about the program, call (510) 628-7740.
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