Black U.S. AIDS Rates Rival Those of Some African Nations

A new report
published by the Black AIDS Institute is intended to raise
awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is
not over in America, especially not in Black America,"
reports CNN.

"AIDS in America
today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder
and CEO of the institute to CNN. "2006 CDC data tell us that
about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with
HIV or AIDS are black."

Black people
represent only about one in eight Americans, but one in
every two people living with HIV in the United States is
black, states the report, titled "Left Behind - Black
America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS."

The study uses
new data from UNAIDS along with existing CDC and Census
data. The data revealed that AIDS remains the leading cause
of death among black women between ages 25 and 34, and
it is the second-leading cause of death in black men
35-44.

According to this
report, if black Americans made up their own country,
it would rank above Ethiopia (420,000) and below Ivory Coast
(750,000) in the number of those infected
with HIV.

Wilson urges the
federal government and private foundations to
significantly increase funding for HIV prevention and
treatment programs.

The report also
calls on international agencies to hold the U.S.
government accountable for failure to address HIV/AIDS
epidemic in its own country.

The Ford
Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation funded the
study. (The Advocate)