December 1 is World AIDS Day. It’s important now, more than ever, to know your status.
GET TESTED!
To date, over 230,000 African Americans have died of AIDS – nearly 40 percent of total deaths – and of the more than 1 million people living with HIV in the United States of America today, almost half are black.1 And yet, as a racial group, African Americans represent just 13 percent of the US population.2 The estimated lifetime risk of becoming infected with HIV is 1 in 16 for black males, and 1 in 30 for black females, a far higher risk than for white males (1 in 104) and white females (1 in 588).3 In Washington D.C, which has the nation’s highest district HIV prevalence (3 percent), three-quarters of those infected with HIV are African American.4According to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, African Americans “comprise the greatest proportion of HIV/AIDS cases across many transmission categories, including among women, heterosexual men, injection drug users, and infants.”5
Avert
For black men, the most common ways of getting HIV are (in order)
1. having unprotected sex with another man who has HIV
2. sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV
3. having unprotected sex with a woman who has HIV
For black women, the most common ways of getting HIV are (in order)
1. having unprotected sex with a man who has HIV
2. sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV
Blacks at higher risk for HIV are those
• who are unaware of their partner’s risk factors
• with other STDs (which affect more blacks than any other racial or ethnic group)
• who live in poverty (which is about one quarter [25%] of all blacks)
Being diagnosed with HIV is not a death sentence. I’ll say it again, being diagnosed with HIV is NOT a death sentence.
Get tested TODAY!
To find a testing center near you please visit hivtest.org or call 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636)
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