February
4, 2003 Little Rock
— The HIV/STD/TB Work Unit of the Arkansas
Department of Health will sponsor “A Symposium on AIDS and
African Americans” on Friday, February 7, 2003 from 9:00
a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Neighborhood Resource Center on the
corner of 12th and Pine Sts. in Little Rock.
The symposium will feature presentations by Rev.
William Robinson of Theressa Hoover United Methodist Church,
along with Deborah Bledsoe, MS, LADAC, Mental Health Director
of BCD/Hoover Treatment Center.
Other activities include a viewing of “Kevin’s
Room,” a video that challenges discrimination among people
infected with HIV; poetry readings by “Say It Loud”; and
music. Confidential
HIV counseling and testing will be made available throughout
the day. All
activities are free and open to the public.
These activities are in conjunction with National Black
HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (February 7).
All over the country, organizations have developed
programming around this important health issue.
In
the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the epidemiology of
the disease indicated that the major U.S. cities carried the
burden of increase in the number of new AIDS cases;
epidemiology now shows that the epidemic is drastically and
quickly increasing in the South.
Similar to the national trend, African Americans in
Arkansas have been disproportionately impacted by the HIV
epidemic. The
case rate per 100,000 for African Americans is five times as
high as the white population.
In calendar year 2001, for the first time ever, the
number of newly reported African Americans infected with HIV
exceeded the number of HIV infected white individuals.
African American women make up approximately 30% of the
newly reported HIV/AIDS cases.
In
June 2001, the Southern AIDS Directors met to discuss the
significance of the HIV epidemic in southern states.
To that end, they developed a manifesto that will be
released, nationally, in February 2003.One of the focal points
of that document is the disproportionate increase of HIV
infection among African Americans, particularly in rural,
southern states. In 1999, Thomas Ricketts in his book Rural Health in the
United States, stated, “The epidemic is changing; the
face of HIV/AIDS is becoming increasingly rural, female, black
and heterosexual.”
For
additional information, contact Lola Thrower, HIV Services
Team Leader, or Tere Roderick, HIV Prevention Team Leader, at
661-2408.
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