In addition to being African-American History Month, February 7 has been marked as the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. While African Americans make up 14% of the national population, they also account for 44% of all new HIV infections as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2009. In addition to honoring the African Americans who have made a difference in history, it's also vital to acknowledge and raise awareness about an epidemic which is killing African Americans taking away their chance of ever making history.
As noted in this article (click here), the four key points to raising awareness are: education, testing, involvement, and and treatment. We need to provide appropriate sex education to communities where they may lack access to available resources on HIV/AIDS. We need to make sure African Americans are getting tested on an annual basis especially if they are sexually active. We need to become more involved regardless of our cultural and ethnic background or socioeconomic status. We need to ensure treatment gets to persons recently infected with HIV and those who have been living with HIV/AIDS.
It all just starts with word of mouth and passing on information.
Education is key.
Links!
BET
Clutch Magazine Online
Huffington Post- Fighting Stigma and Marginalization
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