Posted Nov. 30, 2008 – Let’s face it. As we prepare to mark another World AIDS Day, many people are simply ignoring HIV and the fact that AIDS in America is now a Black disease. That’s right; the sexually transmitted virus that causes AIDS is raging in Black communities nationwide, and there’s a deafening silence. Even in the nation’s capital, where preparations are being made to welcome a Black man as our new president, Black people make up most of the new HIV cases, and there’s not a great outcry. While that’s not news to most people, it is still disturbing, particularly considering that there’s new evidence that many young people think since HIV is treatable, and you can live a relatively long and somewhat normal life if you’re infected, getting HIV can’t be all that bad. Newsflash! It is. And being on a steady diet of pills and worry that you could get sicker or die or might infect someone you love is no way to live if you can help it. So, on this World AIDS day, as HIV ravages our communities, the question becomes: What are you willing to do to face down and stop the spread of HIV and AIDS? There are 10 ideas at BET.com/Body & Soul. I’m sure you have others. You can share them here.

Posted Nov. 21, 2008 – There’s disturbing news out of a conference on HIV testing that presents yet another barrier to fighting HIV/AIDS. Several studies presented at the Arlington, Va.- summit show that few people are following the federal health recommendation made two years ago that anyone who sees a medical professional be tested for HIV. Emergency rooms tested patients at a rate of 3.2 per 1,000 visits, Dr. Richard Rothman, associate professor in Hopkins’ emergency medicine department, said at the conference.   Read more »

Posted Nov. 15, 2008 – Once again there’s a promising development for the millions of people suffering from HIV and AIDS worldwide. You’ve probably heard that German scientists say a 42-year-old HIV-positive man is now disease-free after getting a bone-marrow transplant – with specially selected donor stem cells. Some 20 months after the transplant, there is no sign of HIV in his system, according to Gero Hütter, M.D., and colleagues at the Charité-Medical University in Germany. Don’t be fooled, though. The patient has a rare gene mutation that resists HIV infection. And the procedure is expensive and dangerous. Plus, 20 months does not a long-term cure make. Right now there still is no cure for HIV or AIDS. Read more »

Posted Nov. 5, 2008 -  

Posted Nov. 5, 2008 – What if I told you that teens are getting pregnant from watching TV? Sounds implausible, right? But there’s new information that shows that watching sex-laced TV can actually increase chances that girls will have unprotected sex and get pregnant. Males aren’t immune to media influence, either. The same researchers found that young people who play violent video games every free moment are more aggressive than those who don’t. Those are the findings of a new RAND study that looked at the behavior of young people between 10 and 15 years old over a three-year period. Taken at face value, the study seems like just another bunch of numbers that make parents look bad for not monitoring their children’s TV habits.

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Share your story here about how HIV/AIDS has affected your life.

Posted Oct. 15, 2008 – While we applaud the effort the Bush administration has made to fight HIV/AIDS abroad, what all HIV/AIDS fighters here at home wonder:  what will the next president do about the domestic crisis? Right now, America spends $10 billion a year to fight AIDS in Africa, Asia and other countries. Only 10 percent of that figure goes to fight AIDS in the United States, where the disease largely affects African Americans. “When we give money to developing countries to fight AIDS, we demand they have a national strategy. And yet we don’t have a national AIDS strategy in this country,” said Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute. Well, CBS News put the question of how best to handle the domestic HIV/AIDs crisis to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain and got some very different answers.  

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 Posted Aug. 26, 2008 – As the Democratic party heats up, people in the HIV/AIDS fight wonder when is the disease that’s killing off Black folks at alarming numbers going to get some attention. Neither candidate has trotted out a national plan to address the rising problem of Blacks dying nationwide from AIDS at a rate disproportionately higher than for any other ethnic group, notes Black AIDS Institute, which last month issued Left Behind,  a report that shows that as American has upped the amount of money it provides to fight AIDS overseas it has not developed a plan to fight the disease on its own shores. And while the organization celebrates the triumphs of the Democratic Party, which is on the cusp of rewriting American political history by formally nominating Barack Obama as its presidential candidate, it urges the party not to forget that domestically the HIV/AIDS epidemic is at least 40 percent larger than the governmented estimated it to be for more than a decade, according to new government figures, and  that it is growing by more than 55,000 new infections a year. At least 45 percent of those newly infected in 2006 were Black Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says, despite the fact that Blacks are just 13 percent of the population. As the Democrats and Republicans drum up support for their particular candidates, the Institute and 30 other organizations that have been toiling away to hold back the flood of HIV/AIDS cases are saying HOLD UP! Before offering their support, they are demanding that  the candidates and congressional leaders first explain what they are going to do to stop the epidemic?  In a historically unprecedented move, over 30 national HIV/AIDS organizations and leaders representing African-American, Latino, Native American/Alaska Native, and Asian & Pacific Islander communities have joined forces in an urgent call for the development and implementation of a comprehensive national AIDS strategy. The demands to the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees come in response to long standing concerns about unmet needs for targeted HIV research, treatment access, medical care and prevention in communities of color, the groups said in a press release earlier this week.  Let’s see how the candidates respond. To learn more about the AIDS records and platforms of both Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, check out the Black AIDS Institute’s December 2007 report on all presidential candidates, We Demand Accountability.

Posed Aug. 11, 2008 — As the discussions wrapped up at the 17th Annual International AIDS Conference in Mexico City over the weekend, one thing became abundantly clear: We are ignoring a deadly and debilitating disease that affects African Americans more than any other ethnic American group. Dozens of US AIDS activists demonstrated at the AIDS conference Wednesday calling on White House candidates to commit to HIV prevention, as experts warned of growing US public indifference towards the disease. But, at the same time, the activist point out that complacency in America – and within our own communities – is leading to more and more Black deaths from AIDS. What will it take to keep HIV/AIDS on the front burner?

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Women are at greater danger because of the lack of attention to HIV/AIDS at home.

Posted July 31, 2008 – What you might not have heard in the new HIV/AIDS reports that have been released in the last couple of days is that Black women are at greater danger from getting HIV/AIDS now more than ever. As Dr. Helene Gayle, President/CEO of CARE, put it during a recent media conference call that the Black AIDS Institute held earlier this week: “Black women are particularly affected by the domestic AIDS response and attention to their needs are inadequate.

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Posted June 28, 2008 – Eric “Lil E” Wright is bound and determined not to relive his father’s history.  But to honor his father’s legacy, he’s helping to save lives. The son of Eazy E, the rap legend who died of AIDS in 1995, Lil Eazy joined other celebrities, activists and political figures in Los Angeles on Friday to pump up the effort to get one million people tested for HIV. “Anything that has anything to do with AIDS testing and AIDS awareness is part of getting the message out to the kids that you need to test yourself to be safe,” says Lil Eazy, who grew up in the same house as his famous father, but who made it clear in a National Public Radio interview that he is determined to make some different choices. He says he decided to become active in the AIDS fight in high school when, after he became sexually active, a female asked him if he’d taken an HIV test, given the way his father had died. That was the light-bulb momen,  Lil’ E says.  The moment of inspiration might have been different for the other celebrities, activists and political figures who gathered at the Los Angeles Sentinel to support the One Million Testes campaign on Friday, but the purpose was the same: to work to get one million folks to take the HIV tests. Those making the pledge crossed age, gender and genre boundaries. Among them: Rapper Coolio, actors Harold Perrineau (”Lost”), Al Reynolds, Darius McCrary (”Family Matters”), Jimmy Jean-Louis (”Heroes”), Tasha Smith (”Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married”), NBA veteran Doug Christie, singer Jody Watley and Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Diane Watson (D-CA). As part of the Test One Million campaign, they’re making calls to their friends and family to ask: “Have you taken an HIV test?  Lil’ Eazy is to be commended for standing up, and turning what obviously was a grim reminder of the destructive nature of AIDS into a positive, life-saving action. What about you? Who are you going to call to help save a life in honor of National HIV Testing Day? Go to the Black AIDS Institute for more on the One Million Tested campaign and to hear the supporters’ personal stories. Also, find out more about Lil Eazy’s life’s jouney on his MySpace page.