Although this past Tuesday (Feb. 7) marked National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the topic is one worthy of thinking about every day. Colorlines news site offers shocking statistics detailing the still yet aggressive rampage of the disease in the United States, particularly among the African American community. While many assume that our first world nation does not witness despairing numbers—as we do with the epidemic most heard of in sub-Saharan Africa—it is startling to note that black Americans make up nearly half of all the people living with the disease in the U.S. To be more explicit, Colorlines suggests that “if black America were its own country, our HIV epidemic would rank 16th in the world.” If that statistic is shocking, then perhaps it is indicative of the necessity for national HIV/AIDS awareness and a focus on the epidemic’s toll on America’s minorities and subpopulations in addition to attention on the larger global crisis.
Check out Colorlines’ infographic on the prominence of HIV/AIDS in the African American community.
