I am honored to accept the invitation to serve as a national spokesperson for The Balm in Gilead’s 18th
Annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. As a physician and President of the National Medical Association, I am dedicated to supporting The Balm In Gilead in its effort to bring together our faith communities to be at the vanguard of addressing HIV/AIDS in the African American community.
To many people, the growing menace of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is considered old news. Media coverage of the significance of the epidemic has slacked off in recent years. Many myths have emerged such as the chance of getting HIV or AIDS is remote or almost nonexistent. Some incorrectly think the problem appears mainly in Africa and Asia rather than on U.S. soil. We often hear people saying the HIV/AIDS in the United States is not as bad as what happens to “those people” or “over there.”
These perceptions are not only wrong but also potentially deadly. Despite new drugs and promising treatment, HIV/AIDS remains a stubborn, invasive disease that results in tremendous human suffering, and far too many fatalities.
According to the annual HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the estimated number of AIDS cases in the U.S. was 886, 575 as of 2002. More than half a million people have died from AIDS. AIDS is the number one killer of African American men between the ages of 25 and 44 and African Americans account for over fifty percent of the new HIV infections.
A recent surveillance study by the CDC and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services found that Black male college students had high rates of HIV-risk behaviors. Many of these students were identified as MSM (men having sex with men), although some of them also engaged in heterosexual activity, thereby putting young women at risk for HIV/AIDS. The investigation found that young people continue to participate in high-risk sexual behavior due to the lack of sustained prevention messages aimed at them. They also believed that they would not contract HIV, and that physical characteristics indicate a person’s HIV status. In other words, if a person doesn’t look like he has HIV, he or she must be all right.
Clearly, we must do a better job of delivering hard-hitting, realistic, and understandable information to all Americans about the pervasive presence of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in general. We need to offer a barrage of preventive measures that include community planning, counseling, testing and evaluation. Most importantly, we must provide potent and repeated messages about the insidious reality of HIV/AIDS and its devastating impact right here at home.
I am pleased that The Balm in Gilead continues to take an active role in raising awareness in the faith-based community. We at the National Medical Association will continue to show our support in any way possible in addition to providing literature and the educational programs that we currently sponsor.
I appeal to everyone to get involved in the 18th Annual Black Church
Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Education is the key to eradicating
this epidemic and I applaud the Balm in Gilead for its valiant efforts.
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