LEADING FOR LIFE, CITING GRIM AIDS STATISTICS, SOUNDS ALARM THAT BLACK
SILENCE BLACK DEATH

Clear Signal for Government Action on Treatment Access, Needle Exchange
Programming to Turn the Tide

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- With AIDS now the number one killer of young black men
and women, media, religious, community, medical and academic leaders
gathered this week at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African American
Studies for a special media briefing, "The Untold Story: AIDS and Black
Americans, A Briefing on the Crisis of AIDS Among African Americans." The
briefing, organized by the Leading for Life Campaign, explored the complex
issues of HIV/AIDS incidence, impact and awareness in African American
communities.

Denouncing reports that AIDS crisis is over, Professor Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute and Chairman of the
Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University, invoked
government, community and religious leadership to take action to stem the
seriously disproportionate ravaging of African American communities by
HIV/AIDS.

"Although a decline in overall AIDS deaths has been widely reported, AIDS
is absolutely not over for African Americans. In fact, the great tragedy is
that a whole new wave is just beginning," Gates said at this week's
briefing. "We must take strong and immediate action to turn the tide on the
AIDS epidemic before it decimates our communities. We are living with and
dying from this devastating disease, yet our leadership and the government
has failed to effectively mobilize a response."

Incidence and Impact

"HIV/AIDS in the African American community is an extremely serious, urgent
condition," concurred Helene Gayle, M.D., M.P.H. Director, National Center
for HIV, sexually transmitted disease (STD) and tuberculosis (TB)
Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Alarming government statistics on HIV/AIDS show:

- -- More African Americans under the age of 45 die from AIDS than from
homicide, cancer and heart disease.

- -- More than one third -- 35% -- of all reported AIDS cases and 43% of new
AIDS cases are among African Americans, though African Americans comprise
only 12% of the U.S. population.

- -- African American women today make up 60% of all new AIDS cases reported
among women.

- -- African American men represent 39% of new cases among all men, an annual
case rate that is six times that of white men.

"The numbers alone cannot express the impact of the HIV epidemic in the
African American community. The threat of HIV has become a reality that
young African American men and women must face," said Gayle.

In fact, a new national study released by The Kaiser Family Foundation at
this week's briefing found that the formidable threat of AIDS is a source
of grave concern among African Americans. Survey results demonstrated:

- -- One in two African Americans (50%) say they are very concerned about
becoming infected with HIV, a level of worry that is twice that among a
national sample for all Americans (24%).

- -- One in two (49%), versus only a third of a national sample of all
Americans, knows someone who has HIV/AIDS or has died from AIDS.

- -- 58% of African Americans characterize AIDS as a "more urgent problem
today than in the past."

"Our survey clearly demonstrates that African Americans are deeply
concerned about HIV/AIDS in a very personal way," said Sophia Chang, M.D.,
M.P.H., Director of HIV Programs, Kaiser Family Foundation, who introduced
the survey results.

Moving Forward: Policy Changes

The survey also revealed that a majority of African Americans (58%) favor
needle exchange -- programs that offer clean needles to IV drug users in
exchange for used ones. Needle exchange remains a hotly debated issue,
though it is well understood to significantly reduce the spread of HIV
infection among injection drug users at high risk for HIV transmission.
"Needle exchange is a cornerstone of a comprehensive prevention program,"
said Gayle of the CDC, underscoring the complexity of the national debate,
which finds government officials, activists, the medical and religious
community at odds between and among themselves.

"We must confront community complacency and governmental roadblocks to
policies like needle exchange -- which have been proven to stop the spread
of HIV without increasing drug use," decried Mario Cooper, the convener of
the briefing and founder of Leading for Life. "We are in the midst of a
serious public health crisis that demands immediate action. Our children,
our brother and sisters, mothers and fathers are dying cruel and untimely
deaths."

"African American churches, government officials, entertainers and civil
rights organizations must band together -- for black silence black death,
and far too many deaths have taken our loved ones already," Cooper
continued. "The hope comes in the possibility that the knowledge, concern
and awareness identified among African Americans in the Kaiser survey will
translate to action that demands government and community mobilization to
stem the tide of this epidemic that's killing African American kids and
devastating their families."

"We will continue to inform the media through mailings and meetings on the
impact of AIDS on African Americans," said Gates. "Our goal is to respond
to the need for education and action demonstrated in the Kaiser survey by
assisting organizations such as the Balm In Gilead, the black church
organization dedicated to increasing AIDS awareness in the religious
community," Gates stated.

The conference was co-sponsored by Leading for Life/Harvard AIDS Institute
and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Leading for Life was launched in 1996
with The Harvard AIDS Institute, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African
American Studies, the Kaiser Family Foundation and others, to call
attention to the disproportionate number of AIDS cases in African
Americans, raise awareness among leadership and outline specific steps to
stop the increasing spread of HIV.

SOURCE Harvard AIDS Institute