Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Tuesday March 17 9:27 AM EST
Lori Valigra, UPI Science News
And most African Americans in the survey say the problem has worsened in recent years.
The study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation notes that within two years, more than half of all AIDS cases in the United States will be among African Americans. The study of 811 African American adults is being released in Cambridge, Mass., by the Harvard AIDS Institute.
Some 35 percent of all reported AIDS cases and 43 percent of new AIDS cases in 1996 were among African Americans, even though African Americans comprise only 12 percent of the U.S. population.
Every day, nearly 100 African Americans are diagnosed with AIDS. It has become the leading cause of death for African Americans under age 55, ahead of heart disease, cancer and murder.
AIDS kills twice as many African American men as homicide. African American women make up 60 percent of all new AIDS cases reported among women. Some 63 percent of new pediatric (13 and younger) AIDS cases are among African Americans.
One in two African Americans said they are very concerned about becoming infected by HIV, a level of worry twice that of a national sample of all Americans. And 40 percent of African Americans said their personal concern has heightened from just a few years ago.
Some 49 percent know someone with HIV or AIDS or someone who has died of AIDS. That compares with one-third of all Americans.
African Americans' worries about HIV and AIDS are based on their high knowledge of the disease, the study said. Some 97 percent know how AIDS is transmitted, 73 percent know there is no cure. And 56 percent of African Americans have been tested for HIV, two-thirds of them under age 30. That compares with 38 percent of all Americans having been tested, among whom 51 percent were aged 18-29.
"The challenge now is to convert this high level of awareness and concern into greater action by all those involved in the fight against AIDS," Dr. Sophia Chang, director of the Kaiser Family HIV programs, said.
African Americans are looking for practical help in how to talk with children and partners about HIV and AIDs and where to go for treatment and testing, the survey found.
Some 61 percent of those surveyed said local health care providers care the most about addressing the AIDS crisis. About half said local schools and churches care a lot. But less than 20 percent of African Americans said local, state or federal government care much.
"The survey suggests a disturbing need for leadership within the African American community about an epidemic which is 16 times more likely to strike its women and six times more likely to strike its men," Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of the department of Afro-American studies at Harvard University, said in a statement.
Helene Gayle, and director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agreed. "It has become increasingly clear that the government cannot alone successfully combat this threat," Gayle said. "Overcoming current barriers to HIV prevention will require that leaders from all sectors of the African American community play an even greater role."
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