Wilson plots a plan of attack against HIV/AIDS

Chin up, Black America, not all the news surrounding HIV/AIDS in the African American community is bad. So says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, the nation’s first and only think tank devoted to the eradication of HIV among Black populations.

Wilson, who sits on President Obama’s Advisory Council on AIDS and has been fighting for people of color to get their share of the financial pie via the administration’s first National AIDS Strategy, says a good chunk of the news concerning Black folks and the disease is actually good—an encouraging sign on World AIDS Day.

“For one thing, Black people are more mobilized than ever before,” says the 54-year-old activist, who has been HIV positive since 1985. “Five years ago not one major Black institution had an AIDS plan. Today, many, if not most, of the largest Black institutions—organizations like the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Council of Negro Women and 100 Black Men of America—do. Plus, 14 of them have a national director of HIV/AIDS, whose sole responsibility it is to work on stopping the spread of this disease.”

There are also several recent scientific findings that show significant promise. “A few months ago there was a study released on the development of a new vaginal gel made up of microbicides that could eventually stop the spread of HIV,” says Wilson. “Another study—released last month—showed the efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis, otherwise known as Prep, where people could potentially take a daily pill to keep themselves from becoming infected. And, this past summer scientists identified three new antibodies that could lead to the development of a vaccine.”

While the aforementioned medical developments are promising, there’s still a need for concern regarding the spread of the disease. “New HIV infections are not going down,” says Wilson, whose organization launched a nationwide campaign to test one million people over the next few years. “Black people continue to get diagnosed late which means they’re sicker when they are finally treated, and the meds are not as effective. And because they’ve been infected for awhile without knowing it, in all probability they have infected other people along the way.”

These are just a few reasons why Wilson insists the Obama Administration’s new healthcare plan is so critical for people of color. “It is more difficult for us to have access to medicine and treatment for the disease if we have no insurance,” he explains.

Ultimately, though, the responsibility for our wellness falls on us.

“Our HIV literacy as a group continues to be very low,” says Wilson. “We’re more likely to believe conspiracy theories and myths about HIV, which slows down our readiness to be tested, treated or involved in clinical trials.”

And the lack of knowledge is literally killing us. “Black Americans represent 50 percent of the 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States,” informs Wilson. “We are 50 percent of the new cases diagnosed each year, and 50 percent of the annual AIDS-related deaths in this country. We can change this simply by educating ourselves about the disease, having safe sex, getting tested and working to erase the stigma surrounding HIV. We have no other choice.”

See more from Wilson in the December 2010 issue of Black Enterprise magazine, on stands now.

Read more World AIDS Day related content from BE

• Hydeia Broadbent: “Living With AIDS is No Death Sentence”
• Alicia Keys Tweets Her Own Death For AIDS Awareness
• 6 Misconceptions Young People Have about HIV/AIDS

Broadbent: Born with AIDS and a will to live

International HIV/AIDS activist and motivational speaker, Hydeia Broadbent, didn’t choose her career path, it chose her. Abandoned by her drug-addicted biological mom, Broadbent, who was born HIV positive, has turned what many might have considered a tragic tale into a triumphant one, dedicating her life to helping keep others from getting infected.

Since the age of six the Las Vegas native—who was adopted as an infant—has been a renowned public speaker, traveling to universities like Duke, UCLA and Howard, and appearing on such television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20 and Good Morning America to warn teens and young adults about the dangers of unsafe sex.

In March of 2010, Broadbent teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help launch a new social media initiative called “I Know.” Its purpose is to encourage African Americans ages 18-24 to talk openly about HIV, to know their status and to get tested. The campaign features public service announcements starring celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and Ludacris, and utilizes social media outlets like FaceBook and Twitter to get the word out.

Broadbent says it’s critical for young people to understand that HIV changes your life.

“I lead a pretty normal life but the medicine that helps keep me healthy is very expensive,” says the activist, who relies on the state to foot the enormous bill. “Nowadays kids don’t see HIV as a death sentence. Some of them know people with HIV and assume it’s as easy as popping some pills every now and then. It’s not; each pill I take costs $750.”

The money is just one of Broadbent’s many hardships.

“The medication can also make you really sick,” admits the 26-year-old, who says she spends more time than she’d like inside a doctor’s office. Broadbent also points to the lingering stigma around having HIV/AIDS and says despite having an active social life, dating isn’t easy. “I was once in love with someone who wasn’t strong enough to deal with me having AIDS,” she shares. “That affected me a lot because AIDS is part of me.”

“People sometimes think because I was born with HIV my story does not apply to them,” she adds. “But I’ve had it all my life. Who better to tell you about the disease than someone who has never lived a day without it? My message to young people is that having HIV affects you mind, body and soul. It’s not a death sentence but it does make things a whole lot more complicated.”

More than 2 million followers mourn Keys' Twitter death.

Social media has become a huge part of many people’s lives, so it makes sense that it will play an equal role in the death of several celebrities—digitally. Spearheaded by singer/philanthropist Alicia Keys’s charity, Keep a Child Alive, the Digital Life Sacrifice campaign will find various public figures signing off from Twitter and FaceBook tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 30) in an act of solidarity to raise awareness and funds for families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. Tied in to World AIDS Day, the social media boycott or “digital death” of Keys and her celebrity friends—including her husband Swizz Beatz, Usher, Serena Williams, Lady Gaga, and Kim and Khloe Kardashian, among others—will continue until $1 million is raised.

As part of the campaign, participating celebs will send out “last tweet and testaments” viral videos, as well as dramatic images laying in a casket, to get the word out. “It’s really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on,” Keys told The Associated Press. “It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up.”

Faithful Twitter followers are urged to help bring their favorite stars back to life by texting the first name of the celebrity they’re mourning to 90999, which will automatically donate $10 to the cause. With over 27 million followers among them, Keys and her high profile friends should back to tweeting in no time; but that doesn’t mean you should stand idly by. If celebrity Twitter accounts aren’t your thing, be sure to find a charity of your own choosing to donate to and help fight this ongoing epidemic.

“This is such a direct and instantly emotional way and a little sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention,” says Keys. “It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

Read more on World AIDS Day and people who are fighting to raise awareness

• Young AIDS Activist Hydeia Broadbent: “Living with AIDS is no death sentence”
• Obama AIDS advisor Phil Wilson on our only true defense against HIV/AIDS

Dr. Kevin Fenton (Source: CDC)

Communities from South Africa to South Central Los Angeles and from Birmingham to Beijing will stop today and have a moment of silence for World AIDS Day. Observed on the first day of December since 1988, World AIDS Day was established by the World Health Organization to provide governments, organizations, and individuals an opportunity to raise awareness and focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic.

Globally, there were 2.7 million new HIV infections and 2 million HIV-related deaths in 2007, according to the 2008 report Status of the Global HIV Epidemic commissioned by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. In the U.S., African Americans make up a disproportionately high percentage (45%) of those infections and deaths.

Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has consistently focused on addressing racial and ethnic disparities in sexual health.

Fenton spoke with BlackEnterprise.com to address the serious toll that AIDS/HIV is taking on the African American community and advise the best course of action to reduce that impact.

BlackEnterprise.com: African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population but 45% of new HIV infections. How do you explain the high incidence of new HIV infections among African Americans?

Dr. Kevin Fenton: African Americans bear a greater burden of HIV than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States, with rates of HIV infection that are more than seven times as high as that of whites and almost three times as high as Hispanics.  Within the African American community, black gay and bisexual men, and black women are most heavily affected.

While race itself is not a risk factor, there are a number of reasons why HIV takes such a heavy toll on African Americans. Perhaps most important is the large number of blacks who are already living with HIV. This high prevalence of HIV means that there is a greater risk of infection with every sexual encounter.

It’s important to note that African Americans do not take greater sexual risks than people of other races. A range of other issues are at play, including poverty, limited access to healthcare, drug use, and higher rates of other sexually transmitted diseases (which can significantly increase a person’s chances of acquiring HIV). Stigma and homophobia also play an important role by too often preventing people at risk from getting tested for HIV or accessing other important HIV prevention services.

New infections among African Americans have remained roughly stable for more than a decade – even though an increasing number of people are living with HIV, and can potentially transmit the disease. In addition, new infections have declined dramatically in several transmission categories where African Americans are disproportionately represented: babies born to HIV-infected mothers, injection drug users, and heterosexuals.

What would you say is the most effective way for business leaders to facilitate AIDS prevention education?

The African American community is mobilized and more focused on addressing the black HIV/AIDS crisis than ever before. Black business leaders, as well as leaders from every other segment of the African American community (ie., faith, civil rights, entertainment), have joined forces with CDC through a national effort we call the “Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis among African Americans.”

One of the most important ways the business community can support the nation’s HIV prevention efforts is by partnering with local health departments to promote HIV education, awareness, and testing. For example, about 75 merchants in Detroit and roughly 60 Chicago merchants are participating in a business-led initiative to provide African Americans in their cities with HIV testing and other prevention information. By simply distributing HIV awareness messages on items such as shopping bags and beverage sleeves – and initiating conversations with their customers – these business owners are making important strides in reducing the stigma of HIV.

We strongly encourage all business leaders to get involved. Even the simplest activities can have a significant impact.

How have AIDS prevention tactics such as education, awareness, and testing changed in the last 10 years, given changes in technology?

I would say that HIV testing is the area of prevention that has undergone the most significant changes in the last decade – both in our approach to HIV testing and in the technology itself.

One of the biggest changes took place two years ago, when CDC revised its HIV testing recommendations. At that time, we began recommending that all Americans ages 13 to 64 get tested for HIV in healthcare settings – regardless of their perceived risk. Prior to that time, CDC recommended routine testing only for populations known to be at high risk, such as injection drug users and gay or bisexual men. The main purpose of the revised recommendations is to have HIV testing become a regular part of medical care – just like cholesterol screening is today – in order to identify the 1 in 5 people currently estimated to be living with HIV who do not know they are infected (about 233,000 people), so they can be connected to treatment and prevent transmitting the infection to others.

HIV testing itself has also undergone significant changes, particularly with the introduction of HIV rapid testing in 2002. Rapid testing produces results in about 20 minutes – a vast improvement over the two-week waiting period that was typical when a traditional blood test had to be used to screen for HIV. There are now two types of rapid tests: a simple finger-prick test that uses a single drop of blood; and a saliva test, which uses a toothbrush-like device to collect oral fluid.

Better technology has also made it possible for us to track the HIV epidemic with much more precision than ever before.

Is the AIDS outlook for African Americans worse than many countries in Africa? Has the U.S. done enough financially to prevent AIDS in America?

You’re referring to a recent report by the Black AIDS Institute (BAI), which found that if black America was its own country it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people with HIV – ahead of nations such as Ethiopia, Botswana, and Haiti.

As a nation, we must recognize the epidemic for the crisis that it is and work to expand access to HIV prevention and treatment. In 2007, the CDC spent $300 million – more than half of its domestic HIV prevention budget – on fighting HIV in African American communities. But the reality is that we’ve been facing increased challenges at a time of relatively stable resources.

An informed and engaged community is one of our most powerful weapons against the spread of HIV.  Black communities need to keep HIV front and center, and we all need to talk openly about HIV to raise awareness and reduce the stigma and homophobia that have been associated with this disease for far too long.

Why is AIDS testing is a critical part of educating African Americans about the disease?

While it’s obvious that HIV testing helps get people into treatment, the link to prevention may not be so apparent. There are two key reasons why HIV testing is critical for the nation’s prevention efforts.  First, research shows that more than half of new sexually transmitted HIV infections are transmitted by those who don’t know they are infected. According to a recent CDC analysis, about 21% of the 1.1 million individuals living with HIV in the United States at the end of 2006 did not know they were infected.

And second, studies show that once people learn they are HIV-positive, most take steps to protect their partners.  Over the past five years, CDC has expanded its efforts to prevent infections on both sides of the equation – keeping HIV-negative individuals uninfected, and helping to ensure that those who are HIV-positive do not unknowingly put their partners at risk of becoming infected.

The CDC remains deeply committed to expanding HIV testing, especially for African Americans.  For example, we awarded $70 million in grants over the last two years to the nation’s hardest-hit states and cities to support their expansion of local HIV testing services, primarily among African Americans.

RESOURCES

What you can do:

Get tested for HIV. To find a testing site center near you, visit hivtest.org or, on your cell phone, text your zip code to Know IT (566948).

Stand up against stigma, racism, and other forms of discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

Donate time and money to HIV/AIDS organizations.

What organizations can do:

Promote World AIDS Day in your organization. Useful materials are available at hivtest.org.

Encourage employees to get involved in World AIDS Day.

Educate staff about HIV/AIDS.

Develop HIV/AIDS policies for the workplace.

MORE INFORMATION

Key Resources from CDC

HIVtest.org

AIDS.gov

World AIDS Campaign

World AIDS Day (Department of Health & Human Services)

CDC HIV Testing Database — Locate an HIV testing site near you

CDC HIV / AIDS — CDC’s Web site for HIV/AIDS in the United States

CDC Global HIV/AIDS — CDC’s Global AIDS Program

CDC National Prevention Information Network — Reference, referral, and distribution service for information on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention