DON’T DARE SHIFT AIDS BLAME TO BLACK WOMEN

Blaming the victims is the favorite game of the oppressors. In sub-Sahara Africa, 59% of those living with AIDS are women though this is not a female disease. What a difference some twenty years of AIDS make! Credit must be given to Tony Brown Journal on United States PBS Television for warning us about 17 years ago that AIDS will soon be blamed on blacks; and stressing good nutrition as defense. The prevailing notion then was that AIDS was clustered among gays in Californian and New York. President Reagan had been admonished for not caring enough to allocate more money for cure and research because it was a gay disease.

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Before long, some scientists blamed it on Haiti and then on Africa. We had many problems in Nigeria, AID was not one of them and I remember that our Government issued a vigilant alert on foreigners coming into the Country. Needless to say, these are now old stories. The reality today is that 65% of HIV infections and 72% of AIDS deaths in the world are now in Africa. The saddest part of it is that women have heavily become the main victims. We did not get here by accident.

Studying the US Center for Disease Control vital statistics on AIDS and Kaiser Family Foundation HIV/AID fact sheet produce some remarkable observations. In the US, of all the females living with HIV/AID: 64% were black, 19% were white and 15% Hispanics. In 2006 the percentage for black women increased to 66%, for Hispanics women 16% but decreased to 17% for white women who are more likely to be infected through drug injection than black women.

Of the 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in United States, more than 500,000 are black. A total of 2% of Blacks (18-49) are HIV positive, higher than any other groups; 0.23 in whites, in the US. The case rate for black men is twice that of black women. HIV prevalence in black men was 2.64% and 1.49% in black women.

There is a striking similarity between the transmission of HIV/AIDS to black women in Africa and in the United States. Homophobia, stigma and macho stance are the reasons bisexual black males don’t disclose their sexual orientation while most white gay men are more likely to identify themselves as such in clusters obvious to white females. This is because white men can be better tolerated as gay or bisexual men in their communities while it is forbidden in any black community.

The common mode of AIDS transmission is still male to male in America followed by combination with drug injection use. In Africa, it is also male to male sexual contact but a (not so) well kept secret, multiple partners, roadside patrons, truck stop prostitutes in an East Africa study, and pursuit of young college girls. Early marriage was discouraged by Professor Kole Shettima in a recent International Youth Conference in Kano. The factors are also in African American communities usually perpetrated by bisexual men leading to transmission in black women. These high risk heterosexual contacts pose danger to population of women and children.

The AIDS hosted by gay men were transmitted to women by bisexual men and by sharing injection needles. This is why most of the new projects and drug assistance must be targeted towards black women in Africa and black communities in the US to prevent eventual annihilation of our mothers and our children. This much has been recognized by Dr. Phillipe Douste-Blazy, Chair of UNITAIDS in cooperation with UNICEF and WHO. Higher percentage of whites with the same sexual risk behavior as blacks live longer after AIDS diagnosis: blacks 66% compared to whites 75%. It is because blacks may not be able to afford the needed drugs to keep them alive. Critics of too much emphasis on AIDS must use AID workers as multivalent.

In the US South where healthcare access is less, blacks with 19% of the population make up 58% of the newly reported AIDS cases in 2006. The level of poverty in some women and access to healthcare in the in US or developing countries is seen in lower life expectancy among low income groups. Moreover and more important, black women need control over condom and if that fails, their own flexible false cavities self-inserted to avoid resistance or embarrassment.

One of the advantages of US election is the discussion of issues that affect the people. The last time HIV/AID were vigorously discussed was during Democrats’ primaries in June 2007 when Hillary Clinton boldly challenged America – “ Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV/AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 to 34 there would be an outrage outcry in this Country”.

Black women are most likely to be infected with HIV unaware of their male risk factors for HIV infection, so primary transmission for black females was high risk heterosexual sex, followed by injection drug use in the US. Of the estimated 141 infants perinatally invested with HIV, 91 or 65% were black. More disturbing is that of black teenagers (13-19) were only 16% of the population but accounted for 69% of new AIDS in 2005 in US. Even worse is, out of about two million children living with HIV at the end of 2007 world wide, children in Africa account for 85%.

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In terms of sexual behavior, both white and black men are more likely to be infected by sex with other men, white men were more likely to be so infected. However, heterosexual transmission with drug injection account for black men greater share of infections. The new study by University of London and the University of Texas focused on genes found in 90% of Africans. The malaria genes that offer protection for blacks also make most blacks about 40% more susceptible to AIDS, though they may survive two years longer than those without. So it is not that black Americans or Africans display a higher sexual promiscuous behavior than others.

AIDS is also the second leading cause of death in African American men (35-44). Generally though, HIV was the fourth leading cause of death for all black men and the third for all black women in America. Washington D.C has the highest case rate in America with 5% infected which is comparable to Uganda, noted by Dr. Anthony Fauci Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in CNN series on Black in America. The same 5% is true in Cameroon and Gabon but less than 25% seen in South Africa.

AID workers must also be trained for tuberculosis, malaria and adequate nutrition outreach in Africa. Days of one worker, one disease is wasteful and gone. Churches and conservatives outreach workers must curb their objection to condom and other preventive measures in the face of HIV/AIDS.

By Farouk Martins Aresa