Aids In The African American Community

4 Pages 930 Words

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a condition thought to be caused by a virus in which the body’s white cells lose their ability to protect against infections. AIDS was first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic. AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers by killing or impairing cells of the immune system. Individuals diagnosed with AIDS are susceptible to life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes that usually do not cause illness in healthy people.
More than 600,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1981, and as many as 900,000 Americans may be infected with HIV. The epidemic is growing most rapidly among minority populations and is a leading killer of African-Americans. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) AIDS is six times higher in African-Americans than among whites. African-Americans make up 12% of the United States population, yet 47% of all AIDS cases are African-Americans. This is obviously a disproportional relationship. The CDC also says that whites make up 71% of America’s population; however, only 32% of all AIDS cases involve whites. The CDC also says that over 65% of all pediatric AIDS cases are black children. Without continued study and analysis of the current crisis, the epidemic will surely worsen.
The population of African Americans living with AIDS has been increasing, due largely to the availability of more effective treatments but also due to the increasing impact of the epidemic on minorities in the U.S. Estimated AIDS prevalence among African Americans increased by 150% since 1993, compared to a 68% increase among whites. In 1998, the number of African Americans estimated to be living with AIDS surpassed that of whites for the first time. Advances in t...