Minnesota: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day observed Feb. 7

Events scheduled in Minnesota to raise awareness

January 25, 2008 -- Every day, 72 African Americans are infected with HIV in the United States. Although African Americans are approximately 13 percent of the population of the U.S., they represent nearly half of the total AIDS cases reported in this country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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As part of an effort to address the devastating toll HIV/AIDS has taken on African Americans, the eighth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) will be held Feb. 7 across the country and in Minnesota. The purpose of the observance is to raise awareness and seek solutions to halt the epidemic.

“HIV continues to infect African American and African-born communities at very high rates in Minnesota,” said Peter Carr, director of the STD and HIV Section, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). “NBHAAD can be a springboard to call attention to the situation and to turn around this epidemic.”

Overall, in Minnesota, African American and African-born populations continued to have higher rates of infection compared to whites in 2006. Statewide rates for African Americans were nearly 11 times greater than whites and rates for African-born communities were 20 to 28 times greater than whites. Currently, there are 1,889 African American and African-born persons living with HIV in the state.

“We have a responsibility to reach African American and African-born communities in all social and economic classes,” said Mitchell Davis, Jr., director of the Office of Minority and Multicultural Health, MDH. “It’s important that we make HIV prevention programming and HIV testing opportunities as economically and culturally accessible as possible to these communities.”

The Office of Minority and Multicultural Health at MDH provides capacity-building funding to eight community-based organizations to impart knowledge and skills that affect individual abilities and organizational systems (including community) in the fight to eradicate HIV/AIDS. In addition, the STD and HIV Section at MDH currently funds 22 programs through 19 agencies aimed at preventing the spread of HIV in adults and young people of all races who inject drugs and/or engage in sexual behaviors that transmit HIV.

“In order to impact disease rates, we also have to address a host of economic, social and cultural factors,” Carr said. Some of the factors that impair reaching these communities include limited incomes, lack of insurance, housing conditions, homelessness, cultural stigma, risks associated with incarceration, and marginalized social status.

“Since there is no cure or vaccine for HIV infection, education remains our most effective means of stopping this epidemic,” said Carr. “One of the ways to start is to take advantage of the free HIV educational and testing opportunities occurring on behalf of NBHAAD.”

The MDH Web site provides information and a calendar of local activities for NBHAAD at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/hiv/worldaidsday/nbhaa....

The MDH HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report-2006, which includes data specific for the African American and African-born communities, can be found on the MDH Web site at: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/hiv/hivstatistics.html.

Information about HIV is also available from the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP) AIDSLine, 612- 373-2437, 800-248-2437. MAP AIDSLine offers statewide information and referral services, including prevention education, HIV risk assessments, HIV testing and referrals to HIV testing sites, as well as community resources and prevention programs that serve the African American and African-born communities.

For free downloadable posters and resources on behalf of NBHAAD 2008, visit the NBHAAD Web site at http://www.blackaidsday.org or call 888-259-9534.

Source: Minnesota Department of Health