National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day events to be held February 7 (7690)

The third annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is scheduled for February 7, with events planned for communities around the country. Statistics show that HIV/AIDS is impacting African-Americans particularly hard, with HIV infection rates at twice the level of those for Latinos and eight times higher than those for white Americans.

"We're being diagnosed faster than we're being born," Lisa Berry of New Orleans's Brotherhood Inc. told The [New Orleans] Times-Picayune.

The day is designed to encourage African-Americans to get educated and involved in HIV matters as well as tested for HIV antibodies to help curb the spread of the virus. National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was organized by the Community Capacity Building Coalition, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded coalition that encompasses several nationwide groups: National Organization of Concerned Black Men, Health Watch Information and Promotion Service, Jackson State University Mississippi Urban Research Center, National Black Alcoholism and Addictions Council, and the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. For more information about the event and for links to local activities, visit the coalition's Web site at www.blackaidsday.org.