BY CURTIS L. TAYLOR, Newsday Staff Writer
Newsday, Thursday, November 16, 2006 — National black leaders Thursday announced a new five-point plan to address skyrocketing HIV/AIDS infection rates that includes creating more affordable housing, testing prisoners and recognizing the issue of "down low" sex between men.
The report represents the first time that leaders hailing from a wide cross section of the African-American community have united behind a single agenda calling for systemic changes in response to the AIDS epidemic.
Among the issues addressed is the long-ignored debate over whether secret sex among men in all communities has contributed to the spread of AIDS. "We can't keep that quiet any longer as our community is hemorrhaging from the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Far Rockaway), commenting on the report's recommendation that the issue of black men being on the "down low" be publicly discussed.
The report, "African-Americans, Health Disparities and HIV/AIDS: Recommendations for Confronting the Epidemic in Black Americans," was released as part of a series of events leading to World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.
"The report suggests that we examine structural factors in addition to the traditional individual risk factors that explain high rates among blacks in this country," said Robert E. Fullilove, professor of clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
Fullilove, who authored the 27-page report, said these structural factors include the possible connection between high incarceration rates among African-American men and the spread of AIDS. The report recommends HIV testing of prisoners upon entry and release.
The number of blacks diagnosed with AIDS has increased from 25 percent of all those diagnosed in 1985 to 49 percent in 2004, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Medical experts say women are the new face of HIV/AIDS in a disease that first garnered national headlines in 1981 as a "gay men's cancer" striking homosexual men and intravenous drug users.
The report urged expanding HIV prevention and education programs, as well as voluntary testing programs, and seeking more affordable housing.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders endorsed the report, saying that finding affordable housing was a serious problem for those infected with HIV/AIDS.
But Dr. Aubrey Lewis, founder of the Community Wellness Center in Hempstead, received the report with guarded optimism.
"It is wonderful and nice to put it out, but where HIV/AIDS is happening is deep down in the bowels of the community," Lewis said. "HIV/AIDS is just a symptom of other, more serious problems."
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