Norton Reminds Colleagues of Importance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today joined Congresswomen Barbara Lee (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Donna Christensen (D-VI) in writing their colleagues about the importance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which is today. HIV/AIDS is a top Norton priority because the District of Columbia's high HIV/AIDS rate is traceable in part to Congress, which for 10 years barred the city from using its local funds for needle exchange programs routinely used by big cities. The letter recounts the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on African Americans. While African Americans represent about 14 percent of the population, they account for nearly half of new infections, and an African American woman in the United States is 15 times more likely to be living with HIV than a white woman her age.
In the fiscal year 2012 omnibus spending bill, Norton got $5 million for the District for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment. Preventing the D.C. needle-exchange rider from being re-imposed continues to be at the top of the Congresswoman's agenda because the program has been remarkably successful since Norton got the rider removed in 2008, with a 60 percent decrease in the number of HIV/AIDS cases here attributable to injection drug use.
"We are still in danger, but keeping the HIV/AIDS issue in the public eye, as we are doing today, is the best way to confront it head on," Norton said. "Our city is finally making commendable strides in eliminating the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS testing in some communities, but we cannot stop until testing is universal."
In December, Norton, who offers HIV/AIDS testing at her public events, brought Unity Health Care to the Capitol to offer free HIV/AIDS tests to members of Congress and their staffs in honor of World AIDS Day. Norton also was recently interviewed for Thirteen Percent, a new documentary now in production that investigates how the African-American population has come to account for 50 percent of all new HIV diagnoses. Excerpts from her interview are now available on the documentary's website, www.13percentmovie.com.
The letter is below.
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Dear Colleague:
February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and the 2012 theme is "I am My Brother's/Sister's keeper: Fight HIV/AIDS". After thirty years, HIV remains a crisis in African American communities. However, there is new momentum to reverse the epidemic in communities of color, and bring AIDS to an end.
African Americans continue to face the most severe burden of HIV/AIDS of all racial groups:
- While blacks represent approximately 14% of the population, they account for nearly half of new infections (44% according to the CDC).
- An African American woman in the U.S. is 15 times more likely to be living with HIV than a white woman her own age.
- Recent CDC data showed an alarming 48 percent increase in new HIV infections among young, black men who have sex with men from 2006 to 2009.
- Additionally, Southeastern states have been particularly hard hit by the epidemic.
These statistics serve as a grim reminder of the work yet to do in fighting this epidemic. Black people are disproportionately affected by the weaknesses in our health system. More likely than other Americans to lack health insurance coverage or essential health information, Black people are more likely than other racial or ethnic groups in this country to be diagnosed late in the course of HIV infection, less likely to be linked to care, less likely to be prescribed life-preserving and prevention-promoting antiretroviral drugs, and more likely to die of HIV-related causes.
However, at this moment of time, an extraordinary opportunity is in front of us. Powerful tools – available for use in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals – have the proven ability to dramatically reduce the odds of HIV transmission and acquisition. The Affordable Care Act offers perhaps the most important single strategy for putting powerful HIV-fighting tools to use.
And in the time until health care reform is fully implemented, we as a country need to take steps to aggressively promote HIV testing and deliver antiretroviral drugs to those who need them. That includes steps to eliminate waiting lists for AIDS drug assistance, and ensuring our youth are provided with comprehensive sex education. We also must stop taking stigmatizing, counterproductive actions that drive people away from needed services.
After more than 30 years of struggle, our collective progress reflects the heights that can be reached when all stakeholders work together to achieve common goals. We look forward to working together, with the Administration, and our community partners, until an end of AIDS becomes the reality of our lifetime.
Sincerely,
BARBARA LEE
MAXINE WATERS
DONNA CHRISTENSEN
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
Published: February 7, 2012