Troubling New Figures On AIDS Among Blacks

DESPITE HOPEFUL advances in AIDS treatment and research, the
disease continues to advance relentlessly among African
Americans, according to researchers who predict that in less
than three years half of all HIV cases in the United States
will be among blacks.

Although blacks make up only 12 percent of the population,
they account for 41 percent of Americans with AIDS. The
forecast that black infections will exceed 50 percent in the
year 2000 is good reason to sound the alarm throughout
society, but especially in African American communities
where the devastation is disastrous and getting worse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that
120,000 blacks have died of AIDS and as many as 325,000 are
living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

The CDC says HIV infections are six times higher among
blacks than whites, and that between 1990 and 1994 AIDS
infections grew 68 percent among blacks.

During the same period AIDS doubled among black women. It is
spreading fastest among heterosexual black women, mainly
those whose sexual partners are IV drug users or bisexuals.
Chronicle staff writer Aurelio Rojas reported last week that
AIDS is the most formidable killer of African Americans
between ages 25 and 44.

By any standard the black community is in the midst of an
AIDS crisis that shows no sign of easing. With that as
background, a town hall meeting at San Francisco's Bayview
Opera House on ``The Changing Face of AIDS,'' Saturday
sponsored by the Black Coalition on AIDS and the Bay Area
Black Journalists Association was a welcome start for a
more aggressive approach to the disease among African
Americans.

``Within the African American culture there is a code of
silence around this issue,'' says Duane Poe, executive
director of the coalition. ``It's time for all the
stakeholders and that's everybody to come to the table
to be educated about the issue and take action and
responsibility.''

Politicians, churches, social groups, families and friends
must join in frank discussions on how to avoid AIDS.

Science may someday find a cure for AIDS or a vaccine to
prevent it, but until then education and personal
responsibility are the best weapons against the disease.

© The Chronicle Publishing Company