It is axiomatic that whatever nags or plagues the majority community, often weakens and is far worse in the African-American community.
Unfortunately, like the disparate morbidity and mortality statistics of many other diseases and health conditions among white and black Americans, HIV/AIDS follows this pattern.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that African-Americans represent approximately 12 percent (in 2007) of the U.S. population, but also continues to account for a higher proportion of cases at all stages of HIV/AIDS – from infection with HIV to death with AIDS – compared with members of other races and ethnicities.
In a (CDC) fact sheet revised in August 2009, and aIn recent years, the face of HIV and AIDS has changed from white males to brown females, but news stories about this change are not flooding the airwaves. No one is debating about ways to stem the overwhelming tide of young African-American and Latina woman who are testing positive for HIV.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that women ages 13 to 26 account for 80 percent of new HIV cases in the United States, with an amazing 64 percent of all women living with HIV/AIDS being African-Americans, 19 percent white and 15 percent Latina. AIDS is the leading cause for death in African-American women between the ages of 25 and 34, beating out heart disease and breast cancer.
When actress Gina Ravera – of TV’s “The Closer,” and “ER,” – first heard the statistics about the impact of HIV on black and Latina women, her initial reaction was shock.
“I said, ‘Oh my god, that could have been me,’” she recalls. “I could have been a statistic.”
Ravera, a San Francisco native who is half Puerto Rican and half African-American, decided she needed to do something to help save the lives of these young women. She organized and launched Project Reina, a 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to reaching out to young women of Hispanic and African-American heritage with the message that they deserve to be cherished and adored. She recruited fellow actresses Sydney Tamia Poitier (“Knight Rider”), Dania Ramirez (“Heroes”), Ana Ortiz (“Ugly Betty”), Teresa Randall (“Randle and Girl 6”), Lisa Vidal (“Third Watch”), and Angel Moore (“ER”) and made them hermanas (sisters) in her cause.
“We function as big sisters, giving young women information about life and sharing our experiences from when we were young,” Ravera says. “It’s not just about AIDS prevention; it’s an acknowledgement that life is a gift and it’s your responsibility to do something with it.”
The Gap
Getting the information to these girls is one of the biggest obstacles to progress in preventing the spread of HIV says Dr. Rosa Solorio, an assistant professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“There’s really a strong need for culturally specific interventions,” Solorio says. “Latinas are just as likely to use family planning services as white girls but it’s after they have been pregnant. This is a bigger issue than preventing pregnancy and these girls need a lot of education.”
Solorio pointed out that the primary factor contributing to the female HIV epidemic is poverty – one in five Latinas and one of four African-American women live at or below the poverty level. Limited access to healthcare, substance abuse and high-risk sexual choices are the other major factors.
“We hear people say, ‘why can’t they just use condoms?’” Solorio says. “That’s much easier said than done.”
Many of the women she sees are in relationships where the balance of power tips in favor of the man, leaving women uncomfortable or afraid to require their partners to be tested and to use condoms.
However, Ravera sees this fear akin to toying with death when 80 percent of female HIV patients contracted the virus from a high-risk heterosexual partner.
“When I was growing up the worst thing you could deal with was shame,” she says. “Now you could die having sex with the wrong guy.”
Solorio has seen the evidence. “We have a number of cases of Latino men for example, who do not identify being gay,” Solorio explained. “Many engage in sex with men and women, and the women may not know these men are bisexual, therefore they don’t take precautions.”
The Bridge
Ravera’s vision for Project Reina is to build a bridge between the medical community and adolescent girls of all ethnicities. In her experience, in talking with young teens, many admit they have had their teachers or counselors talk to them about HIV and AIDS. She says it appears to be a classic case of in one ear and out the other.
However, by speaking to these girls in a language, they understand, and in a way that doesn’t patronize or instill fear in them, Ravera hopes to provide information young women can use to protect themselves and change the direction of the deadly tide.
“We’re not male bashing and we’re not putting anybody down,” she says. “We’re serving the family. These young girls are daughters, nieces, aunts, cousins and sisters”
At an event involving young girls from the Starview Adolescent Center in Los Angeles, Ravera asked the girls to take this information back to their homes and share it with their mothers, sisters, and friends. By doing so, she told them they would become hermanas in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“The reason we’re giving information to these young girls is that they can lead us to the end of the AIDS pandemic,” she says. 2007 race/ethnicity graph (shown below), “51 percent of African-Americans, 29 percent of whites, 18 percent of Hispanic/Latinos, 1 percent of Asians, and less than 1 percent of Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaska Natives received a new HIV/AIDS diagnoses.” These percentages included children diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2007, and was based on data collected from 34 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting.
But that is only part of the very catastrophic picture.
A CDC report titled “MMWR Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10 – 24 Years – United States, 2002 – 2007,” illustrates how “approximately 22,000 adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years in 33 states were living with HIV/AIDS in 2006. A majority of these cases included females ages 20-24 at 71 percent, and 80 percent of males in the same age range.”
HIV infection is not only the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 25–34 years, it is also the third leading cause of death for African-American women aged 35–44 years, and the fourth leading cause of death for African-American women aged 45–54 years.
It is the fourth leading cause of death for Hispanic women aged 35–44 years, and in overall causes of death among women, HIV infection was the fifth leading cause of death for all women aged 35-44, and the sixth leading cause of death for all women aged 25-34. Only cancer and heart disease causes more deaths among women of all ethnicities then HIV/AIDS.
The report continues: “However, among youth, ages 10-14, the majority of AIDS diagnoses, 61 percent, were received by females.”
This last statistic is the most alarming of all. How can we expect to stop the ravage and spread of this most vicious disease if 10-14 year-old adolescent females are being affected at an alarming rate?
Where are the parents, teachers, neighbors, the clergy, the village? Where are we failing to educate our children and protect them from this deceptive, insidious thief of innocence, health, and life itself?
It will take all of us to stop the spread of this “kiss of death” that is seducing and claiming too many of our children – our future – because of ignorance, neglect and denial.
If we fail to intervene, we at best are in denial, at worst guilty of negligence.
Yes, as parents, teachers, and caring adults, we may all struggle with questions and issues of when to discuss sex and reproductive health with children let alone run the risk of traumatizing or instilling fear with a discussion of HIV/AIDS. But we can ill afford to do nothing. We must find the right timing, the appropriate balance in when and how to openly and honestly discuss the subject. But discuss it, we must.
How many more 10-14-year olds can we afford to allow to be victimized?
How many more can we sentence to a horrid illness and abbreviated life.
Imagine a doctor telling you that your child, grandchild, child of a friend or colleague has been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS because of sexual activity!
It is painful to imagine. The reality can only be so much worse.
Shouldn’t that be enough for us to intervene?