U.S. AIDS policies neglect blacks, report says

[Auburn85 434]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25917105/

Bush just doesn't like black people as he should. I mean, we remember hurricane katrina. After 8 years, blacks still make less money than whites. Bush has done nothing to force fathers to correct the child out of wedlock situation. Bush has done nothing to address the lack of black division 1A head coaches in college football.

Obama will have to come out of that 9% approval rating of Congress and save the day.

WASHINGTON - U.S. policies and cash may be leading the fight against AIDS globally, but they have neglected the epidemic among black Americans, the Black AIDS Institute said in a report released on Tuesday.

While blacks account for one in eight people in the United States, half of all Americans infected with HIV are black, the report found.

“We are 30 percent of the new cases among gay men, 40 percent of the new cases among men in general, 60 percent of the cases among women and 70 percent of the new cases among youth,” Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson told reporters in a telephone briefing.

“Yet ... the U.S. response to AIDS in black America stands in sharp contrast to the international response to the epidemic overseas,” he added.

Al Sharpton, a prominent activist and founder of the National Action Network, agreed.

“U.S. policy makers seem to be much more interested in the epidemic in Botswana than the epidemic in Louisiana. This is an unnecessary and deadly choice. Both need urgent attention,” Sharpton said.

Dr. Helene Gayle, former head of AIDS for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president of the poverty-fighting charity CARE, said many HIV infected blacks are not in traditional high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.

“The federal government’s approach to the epidemic in black America is fundamentally flawed,” Gayle said. This includes both a lack of funding and poor targeting of the money, she said.

Empowerment and education

Approaches that would work among black Americans include policies to empower women.

“Black women often cannot insist on abstinence or the use of condoms for fear of violence or other emotional trauma,” Gayle said.

Black American women are 23 times more likely than white women to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, the report found.

A lack of education works against young people, who are often powerless and in sexual relationships with older people, who can infect them, Gayle said. Wider testing for HIV among blacks is also essential, the report stressed.

And better prevention messages that use language that will reach drug users, youths and men who have sex with men are key.

“We have focused on abstinence-only (methods) even though they don’t work in our community,” Wilson said.

Information about condom use is important, Wilson said. “We also need to look at needle exchange,” he said — noting that although needle exchange programs work to reduce HIV transmission while doing nothing to encourage drug use, they are frowned upon by the federal government.

Education campaigns can battle myths about disease transmission, as well as conspiracy theories that cause many blacks to mistrust the medical system, Wilson said.

$48 billion for AIDS treatment overseas

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, will spend $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 15 targeted countries and is considered a showpiece of George W. Bush’s presidency.

“More black Americans are infected with HIV than the total populations of people living with HIV in seven of the 15 countries served by PEPFAR,” Wilson said.

“Were black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the U.S. government. Instead, the national response to AIDS among black Americans has been lethargic and often neglectful.”

[kwagoner 214]

Al Sharpton

......................

After reading those words, the remainder of the discussion suddenly disappears from my monitor, news paper, or TV.

I'm all for equal opportunity. This man is just off his rocks and has a skewed vision of the world IMO.

[otterinbham 0]

Hey, I'm no fan of Bush, but the guy did triple AIDS funding, particularly to Africa. And when it comes to New Orleans, Ray Nagin killed more people through neglect and sheer incompetence than the Bush administration (Who, I admit, really screwed the pooch on the whole thing). So I'm not sure how you can justify that incoherent rant. And exactly what does Bush have to do with college football hiring decisions? I mean Ty Willingham had his shot at Notre Dame and look what he did there. And now he's about to get the boot at Washington. Finally, when the black community has 70% of its children outside of marriage and when 50% of its children are in single parent households, no amount of Federal Funding will help.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6123000941.html

[Auburn85 434]

Hey, I'm no fan of Bush, but the guy did triple AIDS funding, particularly to Africa. And when it comes to New Orleans, Ray Nagin killed more people through neglect and sheer incompetence than the Bush administration (Who, I admit, really screwed the pooch on the whole thing). So I'm not sure how you can justify that incoherent rant. And exactly what does Bush have to do with college football hiring decisions? I mean Ty Willingham had his shot at Notre Dame and look what he did there. And now he's about to get the boot at Washington. Finally, when the black community has 70% of its children outside of marriage and when 50% of its children are in single parent households, no amount of Federal Funding will help.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6123000941.html

sorry otter i was being very sarcastic.

i'm aware bush has sent alot of aid to africa. that's one of the points of the article. now "black america" feels abandoned because so much attention is focused on africa. some in "black america" in the same breath talk about how the government oppressed them, abandoned them in Katrina, some believe that the government injected AIDS into the black race... all the while who do they turn to fix the problems? that very same government.

[BamaGrad03 0]

Black America knows how you get aids. They know how you get all the other STDs I hear about on 95.7 jamz daily.

There are free ways to prevent them and STILL have sex.

If they get aids (just like if any white person gets aids), there were ways to prevent it.

It aint Bush's fault.