Event Title
Panel 1: AIDS/HIV
Location
Krongard Room
Start Date
29-3-2013 9:30 AM
End Date
29-3-2013 11:00 AM
Description
HIV is still a major health crisis affecting U.S. communities, particularly among African Americans. The severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Baltimore City is clear. At the end of 2009, there were 13,048 individuals living with HIV/AIDS who were residents of Baltimore City. Of those, 7,189 were living with AIDS. Although African-Americans constitute only about 64 percent of Baltimore’s population, more than 85 percent of adult/adolescent HIV cases diagnosed in 2009 occurred among this population (Baltimore City Health Department, 2009). No group is more disproportionately affected than Black men who have sex with men. Poverty, stigma, homelessness, drug use, unemployment, and low literacy --all known drivers of new HIV infections but they are often largely ignored or discounted because of an overriding imperative to focus on HIV. Science has given us the tools to end the HIV epidemic, now we must muster the political will to do so.
Media Format
youtube
Media Format
flash_audio
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Panel 1: AIDS/HIV
Krongard Room
HIV is still a major health crisis affecting U.S. communities, particularly among African Americans. The severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Baltimore City is clear. At the end of 2009, there were 13,048 individuals living with HIV/AIDS who were residents of Baltimore City. Of those, 7,189 were living with AIDS. Although African-Americans constitute only about 64 percent of Baltimore’s population, more than 85 percent of adult/adolescent HIV cases diagnosed in 2009 occurred among this population (Baltimore City Health Department, 2009). No group is more disproportionately affected than Black men who have sex with men. Poverty, stigma, homelessness, drug use, unemployment, and low literacy --all known drivers of new HIV infections but they are often largely ignored or discounted because of an overriding imperative to focus on HIV. Science has given us the tools to end the HIV epidemic, now we must muster the political will to do so.