If there was one
message C. Virginia Fields, president of the National
Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, wanted people to
take away from her speech last Thursday in New York
City, it was the need for change in addressing the
HIV/AIDS epidemic nationally.
"The face
of the epidemic has changed. The economic status of its
victims has changed. America's approach to
addressing HIV/AIDS too must change," said
Fields, the former Manhattan borough president.
Thursday
night's speech was the first annual address by the
NBCLA on the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the
African-American community. Fields spoke to over a
hundred people in the New York City council chambers
about the need for testing and community outreach. While
almost every seat was filled for the event, some
attendees said it wasn't enough.
"If
HIV/AIDS is the crisis that we just heard, this room should
have been standing room only," said Monica
Sweeney, an assistant health commissioner who
specializes in HIV prevention. "In my other life, one
person died from meningitis in [Brooklyn neighborhood
Bedford-Stuyvesant], and they called a meeting and it was
standing room only. So we say one thing but the
reality of how people are addressing it is
different."
Sweeney said the
LGBT community needs to change its own behaviors to stop
the epidemic, especially concerning drugs and multiple
sexual partners. "There's a cocktail on
the street that is used by men who have sex with men.
What public health message can go out to somebody who
deliberately puts together three drugs that is going
to make you not cognizant of putting on a condom and
not care about not having on a condom?"
While Fields
spoke mostly about the epidemic in the black community, she
said the issues are just as relevant in the LGBT community.
The NBCLA
routinely partners with the Gay Men's Health Crisis
Center because, as Fields said, "we need to
approach it on all fronts." The two groups are
hosted a mobile testing van on Saturday in honor of National
Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
They're
also teaming up to lobby for the passage of a national
HIV/AIDS strategy. With Barack Obama in office, Fields said
the NBCLA has a unique opportunity to changing
national HIV policy, which would have three parts.
First doctors
must adopt the CDC recommendation to routinely test
patients aged 13-64 for HIV. Sweeney agreed that doctors
have stigmatized HIV as much as anyone else, and state
and municipal health laws should be changed. Fields
also encouraged the passage of an amendment by Rep.
Maxine Waters for HIV testing of inmates entering and
leaving prison. Those who test positive when entering
must receive treatment, education, and support.
Finally, schools would institute comprehensive health
education for students.
Fields said all
of these goals are attainable with the election of
President Obama, who announced a national HIV/AIDS strategy
plan during his campaign. "The HIV/AIDS crisis
is far from over, she said. "Fortunately, 2009
has ushered in a new and historic era of hope and
change."
