Of all the afflictions that have scourged mankind in the 21st Century, HIV/AIDS is arguably the most terrible. This is because it results in the premature death of the infected and has no known cure to date. While all races are equally predisposed to being infected by the HIV virus, it has been noted that the African American community has an especially high number of new infections.
HIV/AIDS has become one of the leading causes of mortality among African American males and the death rate from AIDS is disproportionately higher for this population than for white Americans (Gordon 162). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention asserts that “by race/ethnicity, African Americans face the most severe burden of HIV in the United States”. This begs the question why this ethnic group demonstrates a disproportionate prevalence for the killer disease.
This paper argues that certain lifestyle choices as well as economic realities are responsible for the disproportionate overrepresentation of African Americans in HIV/AIDS infections. The paper shall utilize authoritative sources and statistics to explain why HIV/Aids crises are high in the African-American community.
According to the 2000 U.S. census, African Americans make up about 13% of the entire US population (US Census Bureau). This number consists of both the native born African Americans as well as the ones who have migrated from Africa, the Caribbean islands and other locations. As of the end of 2007, statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that African Americans accounted for 46% of people living with HIV/AIDS in the US (CDC).
This minority group also accounted for almost 50% of the new HIV infections. While Laurencin, Christensen and Taylor suggest that the rising number of blacks living with HIV/AIDS may not be an indication of higher infection rates but rather the increase in longevity of infected individuals due to advances in treatments, African American infection rates still fail to show significant drop that other ethnic groups demonstrate (36).
Within the black community, men are particularly prone to HIV/AIDS with statistics indicating that in 2006, African American Males made up 65% of the new infections among the black community.
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