What's On Your Agenda?

This year marks the 25th year that HIV/AIDS has ravaged our nation and stripped us of a number of our nation's best and brightest. Unless you are in the medical field, most do not know that AIDS has taken and HIV has infected an unproportionate amount of African American lives. So much so, there has been a number of theories that names the United States government as
the entity that unleashed this deadly virus into our society. The following was taken from the Center for Disease Control's website:

(Please Read)

Among diseases that disproportionately affect African Americans,
HIV/AIDS has had a particularly devastating effect. At every stage―from HIV
diagnosis through the death of persons with AIDS―the hardest-hit racial or
ethnic group is African Americans. Overall, even though African
Americans make up only approximately 13% of the US population, one half of the estimated new numbers of HIV/AIDS
diagnoses in the United States in 2004 were for African Americans [1].*

Race/ethnicity of adults and adolescents with HIV/AIDS diagnosed in
2004 Note. Based on data from 35 areas with long-term, confidential,
name-based HIV reporting. AIDS has become a leading
cause of death for African Americans. In 2002 (the most
recent year for which data are available), HIV/AIDS was the second leading
cause of death for all African Americans aged 35–44 [2]. In the same
year, HIV/AIDS was the number 1 cause of death for African American women
aged 25–34 [2].

The cumulative toll (from the beginning of the epidemic through 2004)
of AIDS is sobering.
Of the almost 1 million cases of AIDS diagnosed in the
United States and its dependencies, possessions, and associated nations, 40%
were in African Americans [1].
Of the more than half a million people with AIDS who have died, 38% were African
Americans [1].

In 2002, HIV/AIDS was the number 1 cause of death
for African American women aged 25-34. It is not an
exaggeration to say that HIV/AIDS is an epidemic in the African American
community.

Quick Facts:
African Americans have accounted for 40%
of AIDS diagnoses since the beginning of the epidemic [1].

African Americans do not live as long as people in other racial or
ethnic groups who have AIDS [1].

In 2004,more African American children (under the age of 13) were
living with AIDS than were children of all other races and ethnicities living
with AIDS combined [1].

Tomorrow, June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. What's on your agenda?

AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati
Street Address
220 Findlay St. Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-7712
Phone Number
513-421-2437 (main)